Isle of Man start-ups have a chance to win a financial boost for their business in an international competition run by the Zurich Insurance Group.

The Zurich Innovation Championship offers start-ups the opportunity to work with the global insurer to grow their business, and receive project funding of up to US$100,000. Businesses here in the island are being urged to enter at www.zurich.com/zic before the closing date on December 23.

The Zurich Innovation Championship is split into four categories:

l Simplicity

l Sustainability

l Prevention and mitigation

l Insurance reimagined

Zurich will select up to 12 promising start-ups in early 2022 for an intensive three-month Innovation Championship Accelerator phase.

Project funding up to US$100,000 will be provided for each of the 12 businesses, together with support from Zurich experts. This will allow the start-ups to prove themselves and prepare an operational plan to grow a joint business proposition.

This is the third edition of the Zurich Innovation Championship which over the years has proven to be a fantastic vehicle for inspiring and supporting innovative business ideas. In the 2019/2020 edition, three winners were selected. Gold went to ClaimFlo, a processing platform for property and casualty claims developed by New York-based fintech, Safekeep. Two start-ups claimed silver: Pops! Diabetes Care, which offers a new way to test blood sugar levels, and Jupiter Intelligence which is a global leader in climate analytics.

l For anyone who wants to find out more about what’s involved, Zurich International and Isle of Man Chamber of Commerce are hosting a breakfast briefing at Barclays Eagle Lab in Douglas at 8.30am on December 2.

Led by Nigel Simpson, head of international markets at Zurich International, the event will be an ideal opportunity for start-ups to ask questions about the Innovation Championship, and to get inspired to enter by finding out more about the substantial benefits in terms of funding, promotion and implementation.

Also attending will be Enterprise Minister Dr Alex Allinson MHK, and Simon Pickering from Insurtech Isle of Man.

To register go to the events section of www.iomchamber.org.im