The idea for BrokerTech Ventures developed in 2019 when Holmes Murphy set out for a new team to garner a better understanding of insurtech innovation, but they soon found that the task needed more power and capacity behind it.

“What we realized was we were only as broad and as deep as those several individuals at Holmes Murphy had time to do in their non-day jobs,” Susan Hatten, chief operating officer of BTV, said.

Holmes Murphy’s leadership position and relationships in the insurance industry helped bring BTV to fruition initially with M3 Insurance, Wisconsin’s largest insurance brokerage, and four other brokers as the first partner investors to join BTV.

Hatten said an insurtech accelerator was one way BTV was looking to fill the “void” in technology and innovation that focuses on the insurance broker and has become a centerpiece of BTV over the last three years. The other four Towers of Operations fill out the business model: early-stage investment, innovation, capital and media.

BTV co-CEO Dan Keough said the combination of the Five Towers of Operation and industry partnerships have built BTV up over the last three years later.

“We believe the true value in our BTV accelerator and business model is in the engagement with our trifecta ecosystem of BTV agencies, insurance companies and capital resources,” Keough said. “Many of the startups who go through the accelerator have an engagement with our partners that lasts well beyond the accelerator as we work to deploy their technologies to collectively help our clients and the insurance industry identify risks sooner to drive down costs faster.”

BTV currently has 15 independently owned insurance brokerage partners and 14 insurance company partners and will soon have 36 insurtech startups that participated in its accelerator, with the announcement on Tuesday of 12 new companies that are joining the third cohort. The new cohort members are:

• Ferro, Nebraska.
• Foresight Insurance Analytics Inc., Ontario.
• InsCyt LLC dba RiskAnalytics, Kansas.
• Healthee, New York.
• InsuranceGIG, New York.
• Mod Advisor Inc., Iowa.
• NeuralMetrics Inc., Colorado.
• Psyber Solutions LTD, Israel.
• Relay Platform Inc, Ontario.
• Safari, New York.
• Wallit Inc., Maine.
• Xilo, California.

Below, Hatten, Keough and BTV board member Ellen Willadsen share their thoughts on the progress of BTV over the last three years. Keough submitted responses via email.

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