Zurich-BOXX deal shines spotlight on Canadian, home-grown insurtech

Zurich Insurance Group has entered into an agreement to acquire Canadian-based cyber insurance specialist BOXX Insurance.

The terms of the deal were not disclosed. Zurich says BOXX will be integrated into its Zurich Global Ventures (ZGV) group, with BOXX continuing under its own brand. The deal will see BOXX continue as a standalone entity.

Launched in 2018, BOXX has grown to serve close to one million customers across five continents. It’s an example of a Canadian-based, start-up insurtech becoming a truly global insurtech, says Vishal Kundi, BOXX Insurance CEO and co-founder.

“I think that’s something that we should celebrate,” Kundi told Canadian Underwriter in an interview following the announcement. “I think hopefully [our] story [is something] others can use and give them hope that more companies can do this.

“Around Canada Day, I think that’s something that we should celebrate as an industry. One of our homegrown has been able to get there and start that chapter.”

Zurich Insurance has been collaborating with BOXX since 2021. At that time, Zurich Insurance in Switzerland partnered with BOXX to develop a cyber protection app for individuals and families. The app, available in Switzerland in four languages — English, German, French and Italian — helps users anticipate and prevent potential scams and online threats.

Kundi characterized Zurich as a “thoughtful” company, describing their collaboration since 2021 as a type of “proof-of-concept” for Zurich, showing how it could help small and medium-enterprise businesses.

“The success we’ve had, and this proof of concept, has now made us safe [for Zurich], and I think [the acquisition] was the next logical step,” Kundi tells CU. “And now, for them, they’ve got enough proof points to take back to their board to say, ‘Actually, these guys have done something quite special. We’ve been observing them, and our thesis now includes that we should provide that know-how to our customers around the world.’”

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Kundi describes the deal as holistic, in the sense that Zurich’s and BOXX’s markets do not overlap. For example, BOXX develops cyber products for small and medium-sized businesses, while Zurich is targeting the insurance needs of larger commercial enterprises.  

Zurich announced BOXX will be integrated into its ZGV group, which plans to expand its cyber offering for retail and SME customers. In addition to operating its own global businesses across life protection, employee benefits, and travel lines, ZGV wants to deliver digital-first, prevention, protection, and recovery products — including those offered through BOXX — to customers across retail and business-to-business-to-employees space.

“I am thrilled to strengthen our partnership by welcoming BOXX to Zurich Global Ventures,” ZGV CEO Cara Morton said of the deal. “BOXX’s digital-first, service-led approach will help us further enhance customer engagement and provide integrated solutions that make people’s everyday life easier.”

For Kundi, the arrangement is a way for BOXX to experiment with technology without affecting Zurich’s parent brand name.

“They like the prevention-led approach [to risk].” Kundi says of Zurich. “So, the fact that we had data points to say, ‘You know what? If you invest in customers being more cyber-healthy, you’ll get better outcomes as an underwriter,’ I think that’s definitely one [reason Zurich acquired BOXX].

“I think Number 2 would be: Zurich has a number of partnerships with very big brands around the world who’ve been demanding [that they] close their customers’ cyber gap. And they really didn’t know how to; now, we’ve been able to offer right-sized, bite-sized chunks for them to be able to help close that that [cyber insurance] gap for their partners. It could be a bank, it could be an airline, it could be a number of different retailers.”