QBE and SafetyCulture announce joint venture

Australia-based QBE Insurance has joined forces with workplace safety technology platform, SafetyCulture , to launch a new insurance market entrant, Mitti, aimed at reimagining the traditional relationship between businesses and insurance. This new venture demonstrates the insurer’s intent to become a more digitally enabled business, with offerings designed to provide tailored solutions for customers to better manage current and emerging risks.

Mitti is a technology-first insurance company aiming to challenge the traditional insurance model for small to medium businesses (SMEs), with a key focus on risk mitigation to reduce the likelihood of needing to make a claim. It leverages SafetyCulture’s risk mitigation technology to identify and then alleviate potential business risks, with QBE providing the industry insights and underlying security of an international insurance company. Mitti joins the portfolio of companies sitting within QBE Ventures, which exists to enable the insurer to partner, build and invest in new technologies, and work with start-ups to better service the evolving needs of customers.

“QBE’s joint venture with SafetyCulture has created a unique and compelling proposition that responds to the needs and ambitions of small and medium businesses in Australia. By leveraging big data, AI and machine learning, we can deliver more tailored solutions that don’t just assess risk, but help customers avoid risks altogether and the losses that come with these. Importantly, by supporting more businesses to manage their risks, Mitti will help create safer workplaces for their customers and employees. The launch of Mitti is a great example of how we’re making deliberate changes to how we work within QBE, to adopt new ways of thinking, create more innovative products and services, remove barriers to productivity, and partner with innovative players to ultimately reinvent insurance.” – QBE Ventures CEO, James Orchard.

In April, SafetyCulture became Australia’s latest unicorn with a valuation of $1.3 billion. “Everyday SafetyCulture helps thousands of businesses across the globe build their immunity to risk. Since inception, we’ve been encouraging our customers to proactively lean into challenges and take ownership of their risk. Our partnership with Mitti propels our mission to empower businesses to build a genuine safety culture in their workplace. We’re eager to help more Australian companies improve their risk management and reap the rewards. Mitti customers will gain access to our iAuditor platform; the world’s largest safety checklist app. This technology enables customers to conduct workplace inspections, extract insights and build a holistic picture of safety, compliance and risk.” – Safety Culture Founder, Luke Anear.