Onboarding process for start-ups

Core to innovation at Aviva is working with partners in the Insurtech & Fintech ecosystem. The businesses that we work with bring disruptive ideas and technologies to Aviva, they help us to think differently and move at pace. 

On this page you'll find information on our onboarding process for start-ups.

Phase 1 – Introduction & Evaluation

If you’re interested in partnering with Aviva, we have a dedicated innovation team who will help in determining whether your proposition is a good fit. 

At this stage we’ll consider the following factors in our evaluation - our strategy and innovation themes, customer and business benefit and competing propositions.

If the outcome of this evaluation is positive, we’ll suggest moving forward to an experiment – a Proof of Concept (POC) or Pilot project. This gives us an opportunity to build a strong business case for ongoing partnership.

The below illustration shows how this first interaction with us could play out. 

01. Introduce us to your proposition

After an initial conversation with a member of our team, we will make an assessment of whether your proposition meets our customer and business needs.

02. We both sign a Confidentiality Agreement

This makes it possible to share commercially sensitive information in confidence and will enable us to have an open discussion about what a partnership might look like.

03. We explore how we might work together

We will introduce you to relevant subject experts in the organisation and do a deep dive in to the desirability, feasibility and viability of a partnership.

04. Decision Point

If we have identified an opportunity to collaborate, we will usually do an experiment first. This way, we can prove or disprove our assumptions and build our case for a partnership.

If your proposition isn't quite right for Aviva, this is where we will part ways. We'll make sure that we provide you with feedback and it might be sensible for us to stay in touch.

Phase 2 – Experimentation

If the decision is to explore the opportunity further, you’ll then go through the following steps.

We’ll work with you throughout this process to ensure it’s completed as quickly and efficiently as possible. The lead time to launch of an experiment – whether Proof of Concept (POC) or Pilot – will depend on the complexity of the experiment. What we mean by that is:

  • If there’s interactivity or integration required between your product and our IT estate or data
  • Whether you intend to test the product/service with our customers
  • If your product requires the use of personal or confidential data
  • If you outsource any of your proposition
  • If the introduction and then removal of your solution raises any risks across our ability to retain confidential data, integrity of our business and availability of our products/services to our customers

So we’ll ensure that the experiment is as lightweight as possible without compromising on our ability to prove the value of your proposition. 

05. We design an experiment

Up until now, we will have made assumptions about how your proposition works and/or how customers will interact with it. We'll design an experiment to test those assumptions. This could take the form of a live test with customers or simulation with dummy data. We'll define the success criteria and figure out how to conduct the experiment in the quickest and most cost effective way.

06. We complete the Governance Questionnaire

This questionnaire will determine what governance we go on to complete at Step 7. It'll depend on a number of factors including if system integration or data sharing is required. The purpose of this step is to ensure the governance we complete is relevant and proportionate to our regulatory obligations and business standards.

07. If needed, we'll ask you to provide us with more detail

The requirements at this stage are conditional on the outcome of the questionnaire at Step 6. If the experiment is complex, you might be asked to tell us more about your operations and technical details of your proposition. We will also ask you to provide business details that help us to ensure that your company is legitimate.

08. Building the Experiment

It may be that we need to complete some design and development work, or recruit support for the experiment before it launches.

09. Writing & Signing the Legal Agreement

Our legal team will compose a contract defining the scope of work and any project specific terms. Once both parties have approved the agreement, we'll have it signed digitally. This is the final milestone before launch.

10. Launching the experiment

The experiment will go live and we will track how it is performing against our assumptions and success criteria.

11. Finally, we'll complete an experiment retrospective and determine our next steps