Partnering with zebra startups to drive innovation.

Join the Zurich Innovation Championship to pilot, partner, and scale solutions that tackle real business challenges

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Zurich Innovation Championship – Driving the Future of Insurance

The Zurich Innovation Championship is the insurance industry’s largest global startup collaboration program, designed to accelerate innovation and create real business impact. Since 2018, Zurich has partnered with forward-thinking startups worldwide, launching 150+ projects across more than 30 countries.

Our program operates through two powerful streams:

Venture Clienting – solving today’s most pressing business challenges by partnering with startups that deliver measurable value.

Hyper Challenge – exploring emerging technologies like Agentic AI to unlock transformative opportunities for the future of insurance.

That’s a wrap: Zurich Innovation Festival 2025

Video, 01:59 min

This year, we brought together startups, tech leaders, customers, and investors to celebrate the most promising solutions. The event showcased our commitment to innovation and reinforced our position as a leader in the field, with over 50 ongoing startup collaborations.

Find out more

Hyper Challenge: Driving Bold Innovation

A global initiative to explore disruptive technologies and create solutions that redefine the future of insurance.

Over

1000

participants

from

40+

countries

built

200+

prototypes

in

weeks

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How does it work?

Illustration Innovation scene — Discover We work with leaders to find and shape ideas that create impact and move the business forward.

Illustration: Collaboration — Scout We search globally for top startups and solutions that fit our needs and deliver real business value.

illustration workshop — Partner We team up to validate solutions with Zurich’s processes and tech, ensuring measurable success.

What can you get from the program?

Gain Zurich as your client

Validate your solution with Zurich as a Venture Client, gaining feedback and real-world use to refine and scale effectively.

Access Zurich’s markets worldwide

Boost your startup’s reach with Zurich’s program and tap into a vast network of 150+ markets worldwide for growth.

Access to industry know-how

Gain insights and expertise to navigate insurance complexity and accelerate innovation with Zurich’s proven approach.

Equity-free project funding

Get funding to test and pilot your solution with Zurich, enabling collaboration and measurable business impact.

In most cases we will proactively scout for the solutions which solve for our priority opportunities.

But if you have a truly game-changing solution which needs to be on our radar, we are excited to hear from you.

Tell us about your solution

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Creating a dazzle

Get to know Zeek the Zebra, its background and how it represents Zurich’s approach to collaboration with startups.
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Stripes of Success

What T. rex can teach us about innovation

Discover how the extinction of the T. rex offers valuable lessons in innovation, emphasizing the importance of adaptability and resilience in the face of change.
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Stripes of Success

Building an innovation mindset

Since its inception in 2018, the Zurich Innovation Championship has attracted over 10,000 startup submissions, fostering a culture of innovation within Zurich's global operations. Collaborations with startups like LISA Insurtech, Wysa, and Miss Moneypenny have led to advancements such as accelerated claims processing, AI-driven mental health support, and enhanced customer engagement through digital wallets
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FAQs

The Zurich Innovation Championship is the Venture Client unit of Zurich. Joining our program is a pivotal step for startups looking to make an impact in the dynamic insurance industry. Our collaboration is focused on integrating and testing your solution in real-world scenarios, ensuring it meets the needs of both our business and our customers.

Venture Clients serve as early adopters, piloting cutting-edge innovations to drive impactful results. Unlike traditional Venture Capital models, we invest in the adoption and validation of a startup's product, service, or technology, without taking equity.

We accept applications throughout the year with no set deadline, and the application form is available online.

To apply, you have…

Compelling use case: Your product, service, or technology must present a clear and impactful use case that enhances our operations or customer experience.
Proven operative solution: Your startup should have a functional prototype or a working product that is ready to be tested and validated within the framework of our innovation program.
Existing paying customer: Your startup must have at least one existing paying customer.
Secured early-stage funding: Your startup should have either received funding from institutional investors.

Yes, we welcome startups from all industries! Some of the most impactful innovations in our program have come from outside the insurance industry. If your technology or solution has the potential to address challenges in the insurance sector, we’d love to hear from you.

The program typically lasts around 3 months. During this period, you will:

Test and refine your solution: You will work closely with our team to integrate your solution into our insurance processes for thorough validation.
Build connections: Establish relationships with influential decision-makers within our organization and the wider insurance network to drive your business forward.
Co-create and showcase value: Collaborate with us to develop a strong use case and a business proposition that highlights how your solution addresses critical industry challenges, enhances efficiency, or improves customer experiences.

After successfully completing the program, our goal is to scale your solution across Zurich’s Business Units, creating measurable value. We will work together to integrate your innovation into our operations, addressing key challenges and enhancing customer outcomes. This collaboration is the foundation for a long-term partnership focused on driving impactful change within Zurich.

Startups will retain the intellectual property for their initial products and services. If a startup later collaborates with Zurich to co-develop new products or services using Zurich resources, a separate negotiation around intellectual property will take place.

Your data submitted will be handled according the Zurich privacy policy. Confidentiality agreements can be established between Zurich and startups that enter the program. Zurich will retain the submissions from startups as a pipeline of innovation and may contact startups for future collaboration opportunities at its discretion, regardless of whether they will be selected or not. Every startup has the right to request their submission to be completely removed from Zurich’s records and will receive confirmation of any such requests according to relevant data protection regulations. Requests for record deletion should be sent by e-mail to innovation@zurich.com.

By entering the Zurich Innovation Championship, the startups grant Zurich the right, without limitation or further permission or compensation, to retain the full content of the application(s), regardless of the selection status (accepted or not) in the venture client program of the Zurich Innovation Championship. The startup agrees that Zurich will have the right after the program, but not the obligation, in its sole discretion to contact any applicant regarding a possible business relationship with Zurich for further innovative initiatives.
By accepting Zurich as a venture client, startups grant Zurich the additional rights, without limitation or further permission or compensation, to use and publish their names in conjunction with the Zurich Innovation Championship.
The startup confirms to have read and understood these FAQs of the program and fully and unconditionally agree to comply with the rules described here. If the startup does not agree with any of the rules of these FAQs, they shall not register for the ZIC and shall not apply.
If you wish to exercise your statutory right to be forgotten, please contact us at innovation@zurich.com. We may ask you to provide a copy of your ID card or otherwise evidence of your identity. We will respond to your request within the applicable statutory term.