MetLife Inc. is trying to plant and fertilize new insurtech ideas.
The New York-based insurer is setting up a MetLife Digital Accelerator program that will offer coaching and cash for insurtech startups.
MetLife hopes to work with Techstars, a startup identification and coaching program, to send 10 startup organizers to its tech center in Cary, North Carolina, for a 13-week training program starting in July, according to a blog entry posted by Mee-Jung Jang, a Techstars managing director.
In addition to training and mentoring, each startup will get up to $120,000 in funding, in exchange for the program getting a 6% to 10% stake in the startup, Jang says. Techstars says typical participants in the program raise an average of $2 million in outside capital each after completing the program.
Applications are due April 8.
A copy of the application is available here.
“We are interested in any business that touches the world of insurance,” Jang writes. “Some of our specific interests include health and wellness (as it pertains to financial and lifestyle), the gig and sharing economy, benefits marketplaces, and rethinking underwriting.”