EMERGING TECHNOLOGY
medZERO | July 14, 2022
LG Electronics’ North American Innovation Center (LG NOVA) picked medZERO as one of the “Selected 20” startups advancing to the next stage of its Mission for the Future global challenge competition. The honor comes with $100,000 to help fund a collaboration for the next round of the competition.
The recognition is the latest for the Portland-based startup medZERO, an employer-sponsored financial wellness platform that gives employees a smarter way to pay for healthcare via on-demand access to funds to pay their out-of- pocked expenses over time at zero interest and zero fees.
In May, medZERO was one of six companies selected by the Meta Lab challenge, a prestigious competition sponsored by the Carolina Fintech Hub and MassChallenge, an international business accelerator program located in Boston.
Since securing $5.7 million in seed funding last year from Silicon Valley powerhouses True Ventures, Village Global and other angel investors, medZERO launched its app in November 2021 and has been hiring and has more than doubled its customer base.
Each of the 20 top contenders in the LG NOVA program were awarded $100,000 for proof-of-concept projects. medZERO was chosen in the Connected Health category as a company that is creating a new solution with potential to transform markets and industries, specifically as people change their perspective on new technology-based care.
“We are honored to make it to this round, LG recognized that our highly scalable, mobile payments platform leverages technology to give employees greater control over their healthcare services and spending.”
-Craig Froude, Co-Founder and CEO, medZERO.
Chosen from a group of more than 1,300 applicants, the Selected 20 will continue in the process to develop their ideas while working closely with LG NOVA’s team of innovation and entrepreneurial experts over the next couple of months—with the goal of being chosen as a Mission for the Future challenge “Top 10” finalist. To be named in August 2022, the Top 10 will have the opportunity to build their business in collaboration with LG on an accelerated path to success, with full access to LG expertise, mentorship, and from NOVA Capital Alliance and investments from LG.
Since its official launch in August 2021, the Mission for the Future challenge has invited innovators and entrepreneurs to submit their business ideas, technologies, and concepts that look to advance people, communities, and the planet. The initial “First 50” startups selected through the challenge program received access to basic business infrastructural support and networking after demonstrating exceptional proof-of-concept within emerging industries, as well as the potential for a successful partnership within the wider LG business.
Over the last few months, our work with the First 50 startups has helped us continue to refine our vision for the future as we look at new areas of growth for LG, said LG Electronics Senior Vice President for Innovation Dr. Sokwoo Rhee, head of LG NOVA. We’re inspired by all of those who have participated to date with groundbreaking, thoughtful tech innovations to drive and contribute to our collaborative community and guiding principle of ‘outside-in’ innovation. With this announcement, we’re sharing the results of our ongoing work in engaging with the startup and entrepreneur community to create impactful technologies that will lead society into the future.
About medZERO-
medZERO is a Portland, Ore., healthcare-focused fintech company (www.medzero.com) designed to make healthcare accessible, affordable and equitable. Our employer sponsored platform provides employees instant access to funds to pay their out-of-pocket healthcare costs with no interest and no fees. Repayment is made through automatic payroll deduction and for users with Health Savings Accounts medZERO payments are pre-tax allowing them to save up to 30% on all qualified medical expenses.
About LG NOVA-
LG NOVA, the North American Innovation Center for global innovation leader LG Electronics, is a team focused on bringing innovation from the outside to LG. LG NOVA is based in Santa Clara, Calif. The center’s mission is to build, nurture and grow innovations that impact the future.
About LG Electronics USA-
LG Electronics USA, Inc., based in Englewood Cliffs, N.J., is the North American subsidiary of LG Electronics, Inc., a $63 billion global innovator in technology and manufacturing. In the United States, LG sells a wide range of innovative home appliances, home entertainment products, commercial displays, air conditioning systems, energy solutions and vehicle components. LG is 2022 ENERGY STAR® Partner of the Year-Sustained Excellence. The company’s commitment to environmental sustainability and its “Life’s Good” marketing theme encompass how LG is dedicated to people’s happiness by exceeding expectations today and tomorrow
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GOVERNMENT INSURANCE
AICIL | July 18, 2022
Agriculture Insurance Company of India Limited (AICIL), a nationalised insurance company under the Ministry of Finance, Government of India, has signed a three-year agreement with Wingsure, an insurtech company that leverages artificial intelligence and deep technology to protect farmers worldwide.
As part of the agreement, Wingsure will use its advanced technology capabilities to significantly strengthen the accessibility of insurance products and services to farmers in India; curate and promote AICIL's comprehensive portfolio of agriculture insurance products and enable its channels, including groups and partner brokers, to distribute on its mobile app.
Agriculture and the allied sectors are the largest sources of livelihood in India, with most rural households dependent primarily on agriculture and 86% percent of holdings being small and marginal. However, farmers are vulnerable to the impact of climate change and other livelihood risks and have sub-optimal access to risk awareness programs and modern resources. Launched to support economic empowerment with transparency and promote sustainability through modern agricultural practices, Wingsure's application leverages advanced computer vision, augmented reality, and voice capabilities to provide intelligence and facilitate the underwriting and insurance claims processes for small holder farmers. The partnership will have access to more than 40 million farmers in India and focus on transforming how farmers mitigate and adapt to climate change and other livelihood related risks.
"We firmly believe that technology implementation is key to providing insurance and thereby protecting the underserved. Through our association, we will utilise the Wingsure technology platform to support our vision of how farmers can leverage insurance to mitigate risk."
-Malay Poddar, Chairman and Managing Director, AICIL
Avi Basu, Founder, and CEO of Wingsure, said, Wingsure's deep-tech platform revolutionizes how small holder farmers leverage insurance and financial products to protect their livelihood. It is designed to provide optimal access to risk awareness programs, climate smart practices & other modern resources as well as government backed schemes. The application uses AI and machine learning (ML) to rapidly process insurance underwriting and claims. We are excited to partner with AICIL in their vision to use technology for strengthening farmers' resilience in India.
About Agriculture Insurance Company of India Limited-
AICIL, controlled by the Government of India, has been implementing the crop insurance schemes of the Government of India since 2003-04. Currently, AICIL is implementing, inter alia, Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY), Bangla Shasya Bima Scheme (BSBS), and Restructured Weather-based Crop Insurance Scheme (RWBCIS) and many of it proprietary agriculture insurance products.
About Wingsure-
Wingsure leverages artificial intelligence and deep technology to protect farmers worldwide. The company operates in developing nations, as well as advanced countries, focusing on growers who are locked out of traditional financial services. Wingsure is dedicated to providing farmers with competitive levels of technology and security to maintain the dignity and sustainability of individuals worldwide.
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EMERGING TECHNOLOGY,CYBERSECURITY
Carahsoft | July 05, 2022
Carahsoft Technology Corp., the Trusted Government IT Solutions Provider® and Celonis, the global leader in Execution Management, today announced a partnership. Under the agreement, Carahsoft will serve as Celonis’ US Government Distributor making the company’s industry-leading Process Mining and Execution Management Platform available to the Public Sector through Carahsoft’s reseller partner network and NASA Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP) V, Information Technology Enterprise Solutions – Software 2 (ITES-SW2), National Association of State Procurement Officials (NASPO) ValuePoint, National Cooperative Purchasing Alliance (NCPA), and OMNIA Partners contracts.
Celonis’ process mining technology creates a real-time, continuously updated “X-ray” of how an organization runs at the process level. This “X-ray” reveals the hidden inefficiencies that silently kill organizational performance. Celonis combines this with their Execution Management System (EMS), which acts as the surgeon to the process mining “X-ray” to suggest and implement fixes for the issues found. These discoveries allow agencies to perform at levels never thought possible while also increasing their sustainability.
Celonis’ platform is usable across a wide variety of use cases within Government agencies and departments, from finance, procurement, and administrations’ transformation, to mission-focused employee and citizen service transformations. System transformation, process excellence, shared service, and financial agility initiatives are all core themes across use cases and where the power of Celonis’ process mining and execution management capabilities quickly deliver the most value.
“We are thrilled to partner with Carahsoft and their reseller partners to accelerate the time to value for government departments and agencies across the Public Sector, The focus on digital transformation will only continue to increase given everything we’ve learned pre and post pandemic. This partnership ensures we can support every Government customer on their transformation journey as they support businesses and citizens around the world in response to inflation, supply chain and sustainability issues. We are proud to partner with Carahsoft in our joint pursuit of reducing the cost, the risk and dramatically increasing the success, sustainability and scale rate of all transformations.”
-Mike Daniels, Senior Vice President of Public Sector at Celonis.
The addition of Celonis’ process mining and Execution Management System to our offerings likely represents one of the largest opportunities for government services transformation since the cloud was introduced in 2010, said Craig P. Abod, Carahsoft President. Celonis technologies quickly find and fix process inefficiencies hidden in large, complex public systems to deliver improved services and operations as well as to maximize existing investments
About Carahsoft-
Carahsoft Technology Corp. is The Trusted Government IT Solutions Provider®, supporting Public Sector organizations across Federal, State and Local Government agencies and Education and Healthcare markets. As the Master Government Aggregator® for our vendor partners, we deliver solutions for Cybersecurity, MultiCloud, DevSecOps, Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, Open Source, Customer Experience and Engagement, and more. Working with resellers, systems integrators and consultants, our sales and marketing teams provide industry leading IT products, services and training through hundreds of contract vehicles. Visit us at www.carahsoft.com.
About Celonis-
Celonis reveals and fixes inefficiencies businesses can’t see, enabling them to perform at levels they never thought possible. Powered by its market-leading process mining core, the Celonis Execution Management System provides a full set of platform capabilities for business executives and users to eliminate billions in corporate inefficiencies, provide better customer experience and reduce carbon emissions. Celonis has thousands of implementations with global customers and is headquartered in Munich, Germany and New York City, USA with more than 20 offices worldwide.
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