Adjoint’s Interconnections

Real time treasury with automated workflow….for Insurance

One of the really fun things about my work is checking in on a startup’s progress that I had met previously. I recently was able to get an update from Adjoint.io a cool startup that is in the Treasury space and was pleasantly surprised about a few key developments.

I originally met Adjoint in Columbus Ohio last May (aka Forever Ago) and really enjoyed hearing how they were using DLT/Blockchain for treasury workflows. As a Blockchain fan (aka a Blockhead) I was very excited. I followed up in a meeting with one of their founders, the extremely knowledgeable Somil Goyel, their COO in London at Canary Wharf last summer for an outside meeting during a good spell of weather in London.

Fast forward…..

<Time Passage> + <Covid Times> + <B2BPayments Blogs>

= Time to catch up with Adjoint.

I had a call this week with Adjoint’s CEO Havell Rodrigues out of Boston, very open conversation about how goes it….

“Adjoint Treasury uses secure APIs and integrates with existing batch systems built upon financial industry standards to keep accounting infrastructure in sync across multinational data silos” From the Adjoint website

This was a surprise to me as I had them listed in my innovation pipeline as a Blockchain company. Well they no longer focus on Blockchain, fair enough. I think we all had some Blockchain fatigue last year. However, I love this new positioning. APIs connecting the back office of Treasury and delivering a better workflow. They still have underlying DLT technology and even do some “smart contract” type delivery.

Personally, I have seen more Blockchain progress in the last 6 months than the previous 24 months. Past the trough of disillusionment and on to the Reality of Delivery.

Havell explained they are having great success in the Insurance vertical. I am a huge fan of vertical solutions, so this got me thinking…

Is there a more complex industry in need of more digitization than Insurance?

No there is not. AND Havell further pointed out that the nature of insurance is ideal for Adjoint’s solution. I am not as deep in InsureTech as I am in Fintech, but Treasury is key to both.

Years ago I worked on a project with the largest insurance company in Canada. The focus of the project was to get broker’s their commission statements in a secure fashion while protecting customer’s personal data to meet HIPAA compliance requirements. I recognized the value of data flow in insurance and the complexity back then but had not seen it solved……yet.

I was so fascinated I went over to Adjoint’s website (www.adjoint.io)and found a blog about Treasury in Insurance.

Digital Financial Management for Insurance CFOs and Treasurers

“For the most part, InsureTechs and innovative Carriers are doing a good job on the front-end of the value chain, e.g. in digital distribution or underwriting new types of risks, or using new or alternative data sets.”

I had to laugh at the above line from Adjoint’s blog as my biggest complaint in payments innovation is the focus on the Faucet not the plumbing. I am thrilled to see Adjoint focus on the actual plumbing. I think Fintechs avoid plumbing because it is hard but even I could install a faucet in under an hour. (literally I have done this)

“But the connectivity from the middle to the back end, especially related to cash movements, is far from efficient.”

Again Adjoint is talking here about Insurance but I think we would agree this is a sentence that you could read from any finance or bank treasury department. As a matter of fact if you read my B2B payments blogs previously, this sounds like it is from my June 10th blog on the Issues in B2B Payments.

Read the following bullets about Adjoint’s solution for insurance and then think about your own bank or treasury sub-optimal process…..great fit, right?

• Automated matching of premium received to outstanding premium invoice and policy admin system
• Automated earmarking of funds through virtual or sub-accounts so that premiums received for a policy for a particular carrier or reinsurer go to that carrier or reinsurer
• Net premiums payable and instant availability to carriers
• Agency sales “earned” commissions and taxes segregated from trust premium accounts
• Self-audited records to demonstrate regulatory compliance
• Digitised Bordereaux reporting and payments.
• Movement of captive payments almost instantly from a local subsidiary/fronter to the captive
• Netting of claims and premium

I know it is weird to be excited about eliminating wasteful steps in a moribund regulated process but I do really enjoy it. I have always hated inefficiency and am finally becoming somewhat optimistic that 2021 as the year Treasury gets efficient and maybe Adjoint will be part of that solution.

The funny thing about Vertical Solutions, the words change but the concepts carry over.

Insurance and banking are both slow, conservative and regulated leading to a lack of innovation. I think if this works in insurance it works in banking and likely corporate Treasury too.