On September 8-10, the AngelHack team hit the ground in St. Louis, MO for the first RGAx-AURA Blockchain hackathon. The internal event took place at RGA’s insanely beautiful new headquarters which hosted 60 developers, designers and entrepreneurially-minded attendees.
We had an awesome time in St. Louis, and learned a ton about the future blockchain and what it means for life insurance. In other words, this event was off the (block) chain! Check out the deets of the hackathon below!
The Key Players
RGAx is the innovation accelerator of RGA, one of the world’s largest life reinsurance companies. And AURA is a global leader in automated underwriting and has been a core part of RGA’s offering since 2001.
IBM was also in the house to provide mentorship and support to the hackers throughout the events, including a talk from Sloane Brakeville from the IBM Blockchain Labs & Garage.
Daugherty Business Solutions had a few teams representing them in the hackathon, provided hungry hackers a sponsored dinner to chow down on, AND threw in $2,500 for the runner-up team!
And we, AngelHack, were in the building to help run the show, keep an eye on the swag and snacks, do some Missouri trivia, and of course all the other fun things that go into running a hackathon.
The Hackathon
The hackathon started after the work day concluded on Thursday, and went until Saturday afternoon. Employees from RGA, RGAx, Aura and Global IT, as well as select student groups and partner companies (like Daugherty Business Solutions) were invited to participate.
The challenge: How can RGA harness the power and potential of blockchain technology in the life insurance industry?
So the question is, were the 12 teams able to hack projects that tackled the effectiveness, efficiency, or competitiveness of RGAx through blockchain technology?
Yep, they nailed it. In fact, they nailed it so much that the judges were inspired to give out three surprise honorable mentions! And what, exactly, was everyone competing for? Check out the prizes:
- The Grand Prizes-winning team nabbed $15,000 total and will have the chance to pitch their idea to RGAx’s executive leadership for the chance to continue building their solution after the hackathon
- Student teams will have the opportunity to win interviews for internships and/or entry level job opportunities in different fields across the companies
- The runner up team will receive $2,500 sponsored by Daugherty Business Solutions
- A special IBM Bluemix winning team will win a lunch with the IBM team in St. Louis!
The Results
The Grand Prize winner was BeXchange, a x2x mobile insurance exchange platform connecting consumers who are in need of coverage with a distributed network of potential investors. Oh, and in addition to $15,000 – they got some pretty sweet crowns – see below.
The Runner-Up team was Facultative Underwriting Solutions (aka fReMarket), who created a moderated marketplace for facultative underwriting. They will receive $2,500 from Daugherty Business Solutions.
The amazing honorable mention teams included;
…. And the team that won best use of IBM BlueMix was: Healthchain!
The judging panel was stacked, and we’d like to give a special shout out to these awesome luminaries from the St. Louis technology and blockchain communities!
