Industry Updates
Partners Say Amazon Digital Insurance Network Offers Growth Potential

• Renée Kiriluk-Hill
• September 2021
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Amazon's new digital insurance network, formed in partnership with Marsh, helps connect all of the moving parts of the insurance ecosystem in a key small-business channel, according to Karnina Szymanski, Bold Penguin's president of insurance.

Her company and others fueling the Amazon Insurance Accelerator said such partnerships are rising and offer growth potential. Accelerator distribution and underwriting participants are a mix of legacy and insurtech companies.

Anita Sathe, U.S. affinity leader at global broker partner Marsh, said assisting Amazon with the launch of its own insurance network “fits squarely in Marsh's growth strategy. Organizations are increasingly seeking to offer a variety of insurance products to third parties and customers, with a digital-first delivery strategy.”

Marsh is working with an increasing number of such clients, she added. While most coverage will be written through Marsh, insurtech Next is directly participating in the accelerator, deepening a partnership formed earlier with Amazon Business to offer multiple small-business products.

William Arbuckle, head of sales and business development at Next, said partnerships provide an additional channel for growth, “alongside paid media, word-of-mouth, external agents” and more.

Amazon announced the accelerator as part of an expansion of its decades-old “A-to-Z guarantee” that set return policies for products sold and fulfilled by third-party sellers. Now, Amazon is pledging to settle defective product property damage or personal injury claims for the 80% of instances when it said the cost would fall under $1,000.