INNOVATION

Head of New York Life Ventures (NYL Ventures) Joel Albarella recently appeared on an episode of Insurance Innovation Reporter’s Life Accelerated podcast. The episode is titled “The Future of InsurTech with One of the Industry’s First Venture Capitalists.”

Reflecting on the team’s first decade of partnering with startups and accelerating the pace of innovation at New York Life, Joel notes, “The 10-year mark is a big one for us, especially considering that when we began, our efforts at the time were viewed by some within the industry as naïve; this dream of being able to deliver both the financial as well as the strategic and trying to run a corporate venture unit that can really pull off both of those things at the same time. We continue to learn along the way and refine our model. We also learn a lot from others in the space and from our trusted network, which has been so important to us. Our success is really on the shoulders of our network and of the individuals that have given us advice along the way.”

Over the course of the conversation, Joel explains:

•  Why now is the time for continued investment in startups, both in terms of emerging technologies specifically focused on life insurance and those that more broadly address other enterprise needs of large life insurers.
• How there’s significant opportunity at the intersection of insurance and technology and that InsurTech has become more about enabling life insurers as opposed to disrupting them.
• The ongoing internal efforts led by NYL Ventures to continue to drive and nurture New York Life’s culture of innovation.

“The stability, the patient capital, the long-term orientation, and the commitment to core principles have stood the test of time and we expect to continue to do what we do. I’m proud of the team, of what we’ve created, and the results that we’ve delivered,”

—Joel Albarella, Head of New York Life Ventures

“The stability, the patient capital, the long-term orientation, and the commitment to core principles have stood the test of time and we expect to continue to do what we do. I’m proud of the team, of what we’ve created, and the results that we’ve delivered,” he adds. “The best takeaway for me is that we’ve been able to create an aspirational model. We’ve been able to build the team, the function, the individuals, and the support throughout the organization. And then, importantly, our model has resonated in our ecosystem.”

Learn more about NYL Ventures here.

Listen to the entire podcast episode here.

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