QBE’s global cyber insurance proposition powered through strategic cyber-tech partnerships

QBE Ventures, the corporate venture capital arm of QBE Insurance Group, is backing the Group's global cyber insurance ambition through a strategic partnership approach with global cyber-tech startups.

With around a quarter of its investment portfolio now consisting of deep-tech startups with cyber capabilities, QBE Ventures is focused on an innovation ecosystem approach to support the delivery of QBE's global cyber value proposition.

Cybercrime is one of the biggest threats facing businesses around the world today. It's forecast to cost global organisations US$10.5 trillion annually by 2025¹ and, according to 2024 figures from the World Economic Forum, 29 per cent of organisations have been materially impacted by a cyber incident in the past 12 months².

James Orchard, QBE Ventures CEO said that the strategic focus on strengthening QBE's cyber-tech portfolio is to support QBE's global cyber team to deliver an integrated, resilience-focused cyber services offering and enable startups to build their cybersecurity technology capabilities for and alongside the insurance sector.

"A key focus for the QBE Ventures team is to seek out early-stage startups and investment opportunities where there is the potential to partner during the build process to solve insurance industry challenges and capitalise on new opportunities.

"Cyber insurance is a product with a constantly changing risk landscape and we see a critical role for startups to partner with insurers to keep iterating and building for the future."

QBE's first global cyber product, QCyberProtect, was launched across all its international markets in July, providing tailored coverage for losses arising from current and emerging cyber risks. The product is supported by a network of highly skilled cyber experts along with technology capabilities curated through strategic startup partnerships.

Serene Davis, QBE Global Head of Cyber said the growing prevalence of cyber breaches and privacy related threats are a critical component of risk management for brokers and customers across the globe, and it's important that risk management tools extend beyond the confines of a company's cyber security offices.

"The cyber-tech ecosystem has come a long way since cyber insurance really kicked off in the early 2000s. Traditional cyber insurance often focused on tools that sat within dedicated cyber teams, however today we know that cyber threats are a company-wide challenge. Business leaders from across an organisation need access to appropriate tools to reduce the severity of cyber incidents and ensure operations can continue.

"With an innovative product like cyber insurance, QBE Ventures has been a critical partner for the global cyber team to support the development of the product line by scoping out emerging cyber technologies to support an entirely new way of doing business."

In addition to sourcing strategic partnerships, QBE's presence as a global insurer offers a unique ability to pilot new technology solutions in different regions - providing the opportunity to test, learn, and refine technology before rolling out at a larger scale.

"Part of the opportunity at QBE for cyber insurance right now is that we have the capability to pilot technology in selected parts of the world to see if it's scalable," continued Ms Davis.

"For example, in geographies where we're introducing cyber insurance for the first time, we have a little more flexibility to test and learn, rather than doing this in the regions where we have established business. This approach enables us to assess new cyber risk insights and continually improve our clients' position while they remain insured."

QBE's ambition as a cyber insurer relies on the very best technology to help before, during, and after an event takes place, with the aim of supporting the operational resilience of a business.

"We need a relentless focus on the needs of the customer, how those needs change, and how we can use emerging technologies to address those changes - and that is going to really help differentiate QBE's cyber offering over time," Mr Orchard added.

QBE has formed a number of strategic partnerships with companies including CYGNVS, illuminr and Converge, each with unique capabilities to help predict, prevent, and respond to cyber incidents effectively.

^{1) Why we need global rules to crack down on cybercrime | World Economic Forum (weforum.org)
2) WEF_Global_Cybersecurity_Outlook_2024.pdf (weforum.org)}