Nationwide invests in techy insurance startup

Nationwide is buying a stake in a San Franciscobased startup meant to help insurers create new products and services, get them to market faster and integrate them into future technologies.

The company’s stake in Socotra is the latest investment from the $100 million fund the insurer announced in August 2017 in a bid to stay relevant in a period of technological change in the financial-services industries.

As has been the case with Nationwide’s other investments, the insurer didn’t disclose the size of the investment.

Socotra provides technology to help insurers develop back-end systems that will be used to develop insurance products of tomorrow.

The technology could, for example, reduce the time it takes for someone to apply for an insurance product to minutes instead of an hour, said Brian Anderson, senior investment professional for Nationwide Ventures.

“If you’re were going to build an insurance company from the ground up, Socotra has the very flexible policy administration system that you’d start to build your company on,” he said.

Other investments Nationwide has made from the fund have been used to buy stakes in companies such as Nexar, Betterview, Bluevine, Matic and Sure.

Nationwide expects to open a new innovation center this year in the Arena District near its headquarters.