Our investment in disruptive Kiwi start-up, Quantiful

Over the past year we have witnessed an acceleration in how our customers use and interact with digital channels. To help us meet and exceed customer expectations, our IAG Firemark Ventures team searches Australia, New Zealand and the globe for new and emerging technologies that can help us create more value for our customers.

We're excited to announce that we have completed a strategic investment in AI-driven demand planning start-up Quantiful -our first investment in a New Zealand start-up. Quantiful specialises in bringing the voice of the customer to the centre of business planning. The platform takes economic, social, search and other data which can signal change in demand and combines it with customer data to help forecast future sales and identify opportunities for growth. Forecasts and insights are provided via a self-service tool, QU, which will help IAG brands like NZI, AMI and State gain a deeper understanding of what customers want from their insurance, so they can better match our products to customer needs.

In my view, we could not have found a better partner in IAG. We were attracted to IAG's powerful customer focus and culture, along with its proven track-record in building collaborative relationships with start-ups like Quantiful

Alan Gourdie

co-founder, Quantiful

Quantiful Co-Founder and CEO Alan Gourdie shares his views and insights on the importance of this investment and the opportunity it will provide IAG and its customers.

Q. Alan, welcome to the IAG Firemark Ventures family. What benefits do you see in this investment and how will it help Quantiful?

Thank you, it's exciting to be part of it. As a kiwi start-up, investment is central to our business success. We are looking to accelerate development of Quantiful's SaaS platform, QU, which will support existing customers. We're also gearing up for Quantiful's commercial expansion into the Australian and South-East Asian markets.

Q. What do you look for in a strategic partner?

For us, the major benefit of the partnership with IAG is their alignment with both the vision and courage needed to pioneer the use of disruptive technologies. In my view, we could not have found a better partner in IAG. We were attracted to IAG's powerful customer focus and culture, along with its proven track-record in building collaborative relationships with start-ups like Quantiful to leverage new technologies to help improve the customer experience.

Q. How will you work with IAG and Firemark Ventures?

Our relationship with IAG is built around a culture of exploration and understanding how new technologies can help improve IAG's understanding of the drivers of demand for insurance from key customer types.

This is really important in today's world when customers' needs and expectations are changing and shifting at such a rapid pace. IAG's investment in Quantiful highlights the value of demand forecasting and predictive analytics.

Q. What does the investment mean to you as a start-up leader?

There are two major benefits from working with IAG.The Firemark Ventures team is, in our experience, one of the of the most effective post investment support teams we have seen. As well as brokering connections into business units within the wider IAG organisation, they provide professional service support to us as a start-up such as financial, technical and strategic advice, which we have found invaluable. Secondly, as a well-known and respected organisation, IAG provides a powerful, credible foundation for us not only in the financial services sector but also across other industries.

Firemark Ventures is IAG's strategic $75m venture capital fund. Its purpose is to bring the outside world into IAG, by strategically partnering with and investing in startups that have the capacity to materially alter IAG's business. Firemark Ventures investments include Airtasker, Life360, HyperAnna, UpGuard and ActivePipe.

About Quantiful

Established in Auckland, New Zealand in 2012 as a consumer trend consultancy, Co Founders Alan Gourdie and Jamie Cormack have in the last three years transformed Quantiful into a SaaS based technology company with QU, the world's smartest demand planning tool.

QU is revolutionising the way businesses understand their customers and plan for the future.

With QU, enterprises can get closer to their consumers than ever before by including data from sales, consumer buying signals and macroeconomic conditions in planning to optimise product offerings and vastly improve business forecasting.

QU's technology automates analysis of Demand Drivers and addresses areas of uncertainty - like new product introductions, end of product life-cycle management, or consumer volatility - which traditional demand planners and product managers struggle to tackle.

Many businesses are disappointed with planning decisions based on historical spreadsheets and intuition - sometimes ratifying business cases that can represent $10 million or even $100 million worth of purchase ordering or marketing campaigns. QU provides a much needed alternative.