So, you’re interested in bolstering your investment portfolio, but you’re not an accredited investor. No problem! You’re like many other members of the United States’ general public. Especially during the current year, it’s important for business owners to consider setting up and managing their investment funds. It is time to act as your own investor.

Of course, it’s important to understand the difference between types of investments. Also, you must set a reasonable expectation for your returns. If you’re wondering how to boost your investment fund without being an accredited investor, here are a few things to keep in mind.

Accreditation

First, it’s a good idea to know exactly what an accredited investor is. In the US, an accredited investor has access to some investment opportunities that the general public does not.

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For instance, non-accredited individual investors can’t trade private companies and private funds unless the individual investor knows the founders of said companies. In order to act as your own investor with such companies, you must network with the company owners directly. Additionally, an accredited investor may receive an offer to invest in hedge funds.

Investor-Type Guidelines

The SEC (Securities Exchange Commission) sets guidelines which stipulate what constitutes a person’s investor status. To start, an accredited investor must have a net worth (total assets) of more than one million dollars. This includes the spouse’s income if the investor is married.

Additionally, the accredited investor’s annual income must be greater than $200,000 each year, for the past two years. An accredited investor must act as a general partner, executive officer, or other executive in business. Alternately, an accredited investor may function as a broker-dealer.

With all of these SEC rules and regulations in place, how does a business owner like yourself begin to act as your own investor?

Non-Accredited Investors

Non-accredited investors have different Securities Exchange Commission guidelines. For instance, the SEC limits the total assets, net worth, and other financial realities of the non-accredited investor. Only a few exemptions exist in a handful of states.

Fortunately, the SEC provides several options for non-accredited persons to invest. Even as a business owner, you have options. When your net assets are under stated thresholds and you do not meet the accredited investor guidelines, you have a handful of lucrative investment avenues.

Crowdfunding

Most commonly, you may act as your own investor through a crowdfunding investment. Crowdfunding allows you to invest in startups and growing businesses that would more typically be the targets of angel or VC investments. This is often referred to as “equity crowdfunding.” Political leaders in support of the JOBS Act opened this avenue to non-accredited investing.

Equity crowdfunding is particularly popular because it doesn’t require large upfront investments. Even a small business owner can make a large enough contribution to see profitable returns. Depending on the size of a funding round, a non-accredited investor can participate with as little as $1,000. Crowdfunding is a means of leveling the playing field between accredited and non-accredited individuals.

Real Estate

Another popular investment type is real estate investing. Naturally, this refers to investing in property outside of your primary residence. To act as your own investor through real estate, you have two main options: investing in debt and investing in equity.

Photo by bongkarn thanyakij from Pexels

Debt investing means that you are investing in a mortgage note. You receive a share of the interest after the mortgagee pays the note in full. Typically, the return arrives directly into an account at your financial institution.

Equity investing, on the other hand, stipulates that you take on a percentage of ownership stake in a given property. Investing in equity requires a bit higher risk than debt investment, but the returns aren’t as limited.

In Summary

Of course, there are a handful of other ways that non-accredited individuals can invest. However, these are some of the most common and most effective. To learn more, reach out to your financial advisor to discuss investment options.

The bigwigs in the insurance industry have always looked toward incorporating more technology into their businesses. However, long-standing processes and strict government regulations have hindered most InsurTech companies’ progress toward this goal. Fortunately, we’ve started to witness some massive changes in this trend.

Now more than ever, insurance companies are increasing their investment in technology. CB Insights estimates that investors have provided more than $4.15B to insurance tech startups globally. Moreover, industry insiders expect this figure to rise as more startups continue to pop up.

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With so many InsurTech startups mushrooming almost daily, how are you going to differentiate between the worthwhile insurance tech startups and the fads?

Today, we look at the best-known InsurTech companies in the current global insurance market.

Chinese InsurTech Company ZhongAn

ZhongAn may be the most comprehensive online Chinese insurance company today. ZhongAn is undoubtedly up there on the UnsurTech company leader board.

Jin Jeffrey Chen is the company’s CEO. ZhongAn was co-founded by the brilliant billionaire Jack Ma of Alibaba fame, along with Mingzhe Ma of Ping An Insurance and Tencent’s Pony Ma.

Its initial public offering (IPO) in 2017 was the first InsurTech IPO, and it raised $1.5bn.

Flock

Flock is also quickly shooting up the InsurTech leaderboard, thanks to its real-time quantified risk assessment capabilities.

This London-based InsurTech company is backed up by the UK government along with several venture capitalists. It is a pioneer in the use of big data for providing intelligent insurance pricing. Its move onto the global stage was characterized by its partnership with Allianz, the world’s largest aviation insurer.

With this partnership, Flock launched its first InsurTech product, the Flock Cover, a pay-as-you-fly insurance plan. Additionally, it provides an exceptional safety app for drone pilots.

Attestiv

Nicos Vekiarides, John Bates, and Mark Morley, who previously built and exited two successful enterprise SaaS startups, co-founded Attestiv.

This InsurTech company tackles the rising effects of tampered photos, manipulated audio, and deepfake videos. In fact, it has targeted the entire insurance industry as its beachhead market.

Proprietary deep learning models, distributed ledgers, and enterprise workflows give Attestiv the ability to track and validate the authenticity of videos and photos from the point of capture. Attestiv also addresses patent inline validation for media insurance applications.

Perhaps the company’s strongest selling points are its quick and affordable inspections, underwriting, and claims processing.

Esusu

Esusu is a front-runner among InsurTech companies involved in improving financial resiliency. The company designs digital tools and services that help people to manage their finances efficiently.

Esusu has integrated a software solution for insurance that allows them to capture rental payments and consumer data as well as peer-to-peer payments. This InsurTech company uses this data in two ways:

• Esusu captures the financial risk profiles for individuals who are credit invisible or marginalized.
• They then share this data with major credit bureaus, lenders, and governments. This facilitates intelligent decision-making for loan arrangements, policy formulation, and credit scores.

InsurTech Company Zesty AI

Zesty AI is at the center of harnessing the power of AI in changing risk assessment. This InsurTech company uses the latest advancements in computer vision and deep learning data points on residential and commercial properties. The company then extracts important building features for precision modeling of catastrophic and non-catastrophic loss events.

Zesty AI partners with re-insurers and insurance carriers to accurately underwrite risk. This provides a smooth insurance policy purchasing experience for customers and makes inspections more cost-effective.

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Intellect Seec

The pioneer of autonomy in the insurance landscape, Intellect Seec seeks to modernize legacy insurance technologies. Intellect Seec is a cloud-native InsurTech company built as a PaaS (platform-as-a-service).

Intellect Seec enables insurance carriers to build applications that utilize big data. These applications in turn provide a competitive edge, as they utilize machine learning in a cloud environment.

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay 

Because Intellect Seec has woven intelligence into the fabric of its network, it builds robust applications that better utilize insurance processes in the property and casualty insurance sectors. For example, one of its most talked-about applications is the Intellect Xpotent. Xpotent is a fully furnished underwriting workstation. It can be especially useful in handling complicated commercial risk specialties.

Moreover, Intellect Seec has integrated its major technology solutions—big data and machine learning—in all its operations, whether insurance-based or not.

Lemonade

The InsurTech company Lemonade claims to offer the first-ever open-source insurance policy. The company, with headquarters in New York City, offers both renter’s and homeowner’s insurance policies. Artificial intelligence and behavioral economics provide the power behind their policies.

Lemonade’s turning point came in 2016, when the company says they handled a claim in a record-breaking three seconds. This brought them a major shift in user acceptance and general marketability.

This InsurTech company is a B-Corp certified for-profit business entity. Accordingly, the company focuses on positively improving the lives of the people in the community it serves. Additionally, Lemonade offers its services at a flat fee regardless of the underwriting plan. This could explain why many folks cherish this InsurTech icon.

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Zego

Zego was founded by Stuart Kelly, Sten Saar, and Harry Franks in 2016. Saar and Franks are former directors at Deliveroo, and they started Zego to offer customized policy coverage for gig economy workers who wanted hourly commercial insurance.

Users prefer Zego for its simplicity. Its technology enables easy integration with other companies such as Deliveroo and Uber driver apps. It can track the policy holder’s working hours because it only insures a holder only while they’re on the road.

This fast-growing InsurTech company has already attracted $50 million in investments from TransferWise founder Taveet Hinrikus as well as Local Globe and Balderton Capital.

InsurTech Company Tractable

Alexandre Dalyac and Razvan Ranca founded Tractable in 2014, and Adrien Cohen later became the company’s chief business officer. Tractable has since become one of the most sought-after InsurTech companies.

The company relies on AI techniques and computer vision to inspect a vehicle’s level of damage. Using complex image recognition AI, the technology analyzes a series of smartphone photos to assess damage quickly and accurately. This has helped insurers save enormous amounts of time and money. Meanwhile, customers enjoy a quick claims process.

Tractable partners with giant insurance companies in nine countries, including Ageas in the UK and Covea in France. Additionally, the company has plans to bring the top 40 insurance industry players on board by the end of 2020.

The firm has so far raised $55 million, which includes a $25 million Series C funding round in February 2020.

BIMA

BIMA, an InsurTech company with headquarters in Stockholm, has a customer base of 26 million people in 14 countries. A leading player among insurance technology companies, its main goal is to enhance financial inclusion through mobile health and insurance services, especially to low-income individuals.

According to the company’s own assessment, 75% of its customers are first-time insurance policyholders. Additionally, a massive 93% live on less than $10 per day. Its charity-like insurance services make it a favorite of many.

BIMA has raised $110M to date, with the bulk coming from Allianz X, which invested $96M in 2017.

InsurTech Companies Continue to Disrupt the Insurance Industry

InsurTech companies continue to disrupt the insurance industry. Even though traditional insurance companies continue to play a leading role in providing policy coverage, these InsurTech giants are steadily catching up.

Predictive analytics, artificial intelligence, IoT, and machine learning are some of the software solutions for insurance that set these five InsurTech companies miles ahead of the rest. These pacesetters provide a framework of comparison for anyone looking to invest in the ever-growing business of InsurTech.

Featured image by Free-Photos from Pixabay 

Remote working as a concept has been around for years, and now it’s fast replacing the traditional office setup. In fact, forward-thinking organizations no longer promote rigid nine-to-five schedules, and they are happily looking for ways to replace it with flexible remote work.

Employers understand that remote working is an option that encourages workers to spend more time with family and to have less stress and more time for self-care. Now, thanks to flexible schedules, workers can more easily achieve better work-life balance, while employers enjoy better employee retention and more cost savings.

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Remote Work and the IT Industry: A Match Made in Heaven

For many knowledge workers in the IT sector, all it takes is broadband connectivity and a laptop to get things on the move. Then—voila!—they have the option to set up their office almost anywhere. Innovations and advancements in the technology sector make telecommuting and teleworking a reality right here and now.

According to research reports from Remoters, software or technology roles account for most of the opportunities in remote work. For example, the IT industry produces almost 29.2 percent of remote jobs. This is closely followed by the digital marketing industry with 24.5 percent of remote jobs. These include social media managers, content writers, digital marketers, and SEO strategists.

Remote Work in 2020

While many employers are still a long way from accepting the remote style of working, it’s astonishing to see that so many didn’t even realize it was an available option before 2020. But the idea of remote working doesn’t seem so distant anymore.

With tech titans like Google, Facebook, Amazon,  Microsoft, and Twitter being the first ones to send their employees home in the wake of the current pandemic, these organizations will also be the last ones to open up shop.

According to the Washington Post, most of these giants are in no hurry to reopen offices. In fact, many are comfortable with having their workers continue working remotely until 2021.

In so doing, these giants are paving the way for remote working to be the norm. This leaves little doubt that remote working is far more than some short-lived fad.

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Some Interesting Statistics About Remote Working

Here are some interesting statistics to prove that nearly every employee is inclined toward working remotely and showing that remote working is here to stay. For example:

1. A survey on remote work conducted by Buffer showed that 99 percent of employees would be happy to work remotely at least once in their career.

Source

• An MIT survey in early April 2020 of 25,000 American employees found that roughly 15 percent of employees said they’d been working from home before the Covid-19 pandemic. In fact, nearly half of the US workforce might now be remote workers.
• A 2019 survey found that 61% of global companies currently allow their staff to have some sort of remote working.

• Only 32 percent of Japanese companies have flexible working policies. However, 80 percent of Japanese employees express the desire to work remotely.
• A report by FlexJobs states that telecommuting in the US has seen a 115 percent increase in the past decade.
• A report by Zapier states that 66 percent of employees feel the traditional office setup is short-lived and will be obsolete by 2030.

What’s in It for You? Benefits of Hiring an IT/Tech Remote Team

The benefits of hiring remote professionals is simply expressed in these three words: anytime, anyplace, anywhere.

Although there are many reasons for workers to choose remote working, here are some top benefits employers will gain from hiring an IT/tech remote team.

1. Access to a Global Pool of Talent

The biggest benefit of hiring remote talent is that location is no longer a limitation. This is especially significant with regard to the IT industry. This is because finding the right talent with the right technical proficiency in your nearby vicinity is sometimes a challenge. However, with remote working, you can open doors to local, national, and global talent.

• A UK survey of 2,000 employees and more than 500 companies found that remote work allows companies to gain from a varied talent pool without regard to workers’ locations.

2. Employee Loyalty and Retention

Research shows that employees tend to stick with their job longer under a remote agreement. Employee satisfaction and loyalty increase, and greater retention facilitates lower hiring and HR costs. This gives businesses the chance to use these funds for growth and expansion instead.

• Among employers, 10 percent predicted a boost in employee retention in 2020 in a “choose-your-own-work-style” culture.
• Among workers, 76 percent said they would be more loyal to their employers if they had flexible work options.

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3. Increased Creativity and Productivity

One of the most appealing benefits for employees is the flexibility of working from almost anywhere. Whether it’s their favorite coffeehouse, the comfort of their own home, or even while traveling, these options make employees feel happier. It leads them to be more creative and innovative. What’s more, it boosts productivity.

Let’s just say this puts to rest the notion that employees can’t ever be happy. In truth, it appears that remote working has the power to inspire and uplift employer and employee alike.

• A report by Zapier states that 42 percent of employees believe they are extremely productive and more actively engaged when working remotely.
• Results show that 13 percent of remote employees are more productive overall. They also take fewer breaks and sick days.

4. Reduced Costs

By hiring a remote IT team, employers save themselves the cost of relocating a tech expert to their city. Businesses, especially IT startups and other tech companies, can cut their overhead costs exponentially by hiring remote workers.

• By 2030, companies will save an estimated $4.5 trillion each year in the US alone as a direct result of relying on remote workers. These savings will be largely due to improved productivity, lower overhead costs, and greater agility.

Say Hello to the Future of Work

It is becoming quite clear to many employers that hiring remote IT talent is the best thing they can do for their organizations. Moreover, making remote working work requires only a few simple steps:

• Make use of technology and virtual collaborations.
• Communicate clearly and often.
• Trust your remote team and give them the space to bring their ideas to the table.

Remote working in the IT industry is gaining momentum in 2020, especially in light of the current global pandemic. What’s more, it is proving to be a beneficial option for both employees and employers. In short, remote working is here to stay. Hiring and trusting in a remote team will prove to be a future-proof investment.

About the Author

Aayush is Senior Manager for Brand and Marketing at Uplers. He likes to stay on his toes when it comes to marketing and doing things that are worth the risk. He loves also traveling and exploring local cuisines. But in his free time, reading books with coffee is all he wants.