A quote from famous Brazilian jiu-jitsu master Rickson Gracie reminds us: “Sometimes you don’t have to win. You cannot win. But that has nothing to do with losing.”
Those words are worth keeping in mind as we give a tip of the hat to a pair of Finovate/FinDEVr alums that competed in the finals in a pair of startup competitions this week.
The first salute goes to NuCypher. Based out of San Francisco, California, and founded in 2015, NuCypher earned a finalist spot in TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2017’s Startup Battlefield. One of five finalists from a field of 19, NuCypher competed against Collider, Domuso, Sunrise Health, and eventual winner RecordGram for a prize of $50,000 and the “coveted Disrupt Cup.” The judging panel consisted of representatives from RRE Ventures, Oak HC/FT, BBG Ventures, Insight Venture Partners, Girls Who Code, and TechCrunch.
With a platform that provides security and encryption for big data, NuCypher made its FinDEVr debut at FinDEVr 2017 New York. At the event, NuCypher CTO Michael Egorov led a presentation called “Truly Secure Big Data and Cloud Environments,” which investigated the challenge of transferring big data storage and computation to the cloud while keeping encryption keys on premise. The company was named to the top 20 most promising Hadoop solution providers in 2017 by CIO Review in February, and will present its latest technology at FinDEVr 2017 London in June. Learn more about the company via our exclusive interviews with NuCypher CEO MacLane Wilkison and CTO Egorov.
Our second salute goes to Sureify. The insurtech pioneer was one of eight finalists competing in the new startup engagement program, collab, developed by MetLife’s Singapore-based LumenLab. The startups – Capability, Democrance, Digital Fineprint, Flamingo, Good Parents, Shift Technology, and winning company, Uniphore – were selected out of an applicant pool of more than 135 from more than 34 countries. The finalists gave 30-minute pitches in front of senior MetLife executives for the chance to win a $100,000 contract and have their solution implemented in MetLife.
With origins as a provider of unbiased, third-party educational material on insurance for consumers, Sureify grew its offerings by developing its own consumer life insurance product that linked premiums to a healthy lifestyle. The company now provides a variety of customer engagement solutions for insurers that leverage mobile apps, health devices, and wellness programs. Called the “Salesforce.com of Insurance Engagement” by The Digital Insurer and listed by Let’s Talk Payments in its roundup of revolutionary insurtech startups, Sureify demonstrated its technology at FinovateSpring 2014. Dustin Yoder is CEO.