Aviva Ventures, the venture capital arm of multinational insurance firm Aviva, has made an undisclosed “multimillion pound” equity investment in Founders Factory to develop FinTech startups.
The news comes after the tech accelerator and incubator announced a partnership with L’Oreal to invest in beauty tech startups just last week.
Andrew Brem, chief digital officer of Aviva, said: “Insurance and financial services has been stuck in a bygone, analogue era when it comes to engaging with customers – we believe it’s high time to bring the industry into the digital age, for the benefit of customers and insurers alike.
“Partnering with Founders Factory gives us an opportunity to work with a highly talented pool of entrepreneurs who can help us identify new opportunities and deliver them. Only by being brave and disruptive can we truly accelerate our digital strategy and ensure we are giving customers what they rightly expect,” he concluded.
As part of the partnership, Aviva and Founders Factory will work together to develop seven FinTech startups every year. Five of these will be early-stage startups and will go through Founders Factory’s accelerator programme.
The other two are expected to be brand new concepts and will go through Founders Factory’s incubator.
Brent Hoberman, co-founder and executive chairman of Founders Factory, commented: “At Founders Factory we are delighted to partner with Aviva, a global leader in insurance. We are looking forward to working closely with their teams, and accelerating and incubating world class FinTech businesses.
“Entrepreneurs will be very keen to work with such a market leading company and champion of digital innovation. The combination of Aviva with the other corporate investors across multiple sectors in Founders Factory will create more global winners,” added Hoberman.