EPISODE · Jul 23, 2025 · 59 MIN
Amélie Breitburd: How Coopetition Could Double Europe’s Insurance Market
from Scouting for Growth · host Sabine VdL
On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Amélie Breitburd, the former CEO of Lloyd’s Europe, and a leading voice in the movement to rethink how we insure against tomorrow’s biggest shocks – from climate and cyber to the long-tail risks the industry still avoids. In today’s conversation, we’ll unpack her journey to Lloyd’s, explore the institution’s evolving role in a risk-saturated world, and dig deep into the bold ideas behind her latest work. KEY TAKEAWAYS Every day, people should focus on their specifications and should be reminded of it. When I see syndicates doing business only in the US, they could do business in Europe almost for free because, from a capital perspective, diversification helps. We’re here to help people. People wouldn’t do anything: Take a bike, drive a car, or fly to Mars without insurance. It’s a key enabler. As leaders in the insurance industry, I believe we can show a great sense of purpose. There was a period when companies were mainly focused on buying, which was killing teams. I think we’re definitely in the partnership era now, which is great for startups because they can work for different companies, increasing diversity and helping people learn from each other. Insurers have a lot of data, but it’s a bit outdated. Risk is evolving because the automotive industry, for example, is moving towards autonomous cars; data about car behaviour is no longer as important as it used to be; the software and batteries that will be in cars are more important, so we must build another set of data. Then there are things like flying to Mars and carbon capture, where there is no data because we don’t know how we’ll be doing them. BEST MOMENTS ‘Risk is at the heart of what insurers do, and risk is about diversification.’ ‘The statistical aspect is that when you are together, you’re taking risks together and lowering the cost of capital.’ ‘The journey today is like moving from paper to pdf, but the next change perspective is moving to more digitalised exchanges between various parts of the company.’ ‘Coopetition is the idea that if we work together as competitors, we can access a market which is currently inaccessible because it’s not affordable, we can price the risks differently to make them more accessible.’ ABOUT THE GUESTS Amélie Breitburd is a strategic powerhouse in Europe’s insurance and risk management ecosystem, driving a bold agenda to double the size of the continent’s insurable market. With a sharp eye on the protection gap, Amélie brings an unflinching perspective on how to future-proof European economies—through syndication, public-private partnerships, and radical coopetition. A thought leader who thinks beyond tradition, Amélie fuses financial acumen with game theory principles to challenge how we scale solutions to climate risk, cyber threats, and long-tail systemic exposures. Her work on the Digital Insurance Exchange Market (Euro DIEM) envisions a next-gen insurance infrastructure—anchored in data access, distributed underwriting, and multi-layer diversification. LinkedIn ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at [email protected]
What this episode covers
On this episode of Scouting For Growth, Sabine VdL sits down with Amélie Breitburd, former CEO of Lloyd’s Europe and one of the most compelling voices pushing the industry to rethink how we insure the risks we’d rather not talk about. From climate and cyber to long-tail systemic shocks, Amélie brings a bold message: the future of insurance won’t be won by avoiding uncertainty — it will be won by designing new ways to share it. Insurance isn’t a product. It’s an enabler of civilisation. Amélie reminds us why insurance exists in the first place: people wouldn’t take a bike ride, drive a car — let alone “fly to Mars” — without protection. Insurance is a fundamental enabler of progress, innovation, and risk-taking. And for leaders in the industry, that means purpose isn’t optional. It’s the job. Diversification is the real superpower One of the sharpest insights in this episode is Amélie’s view on capital efficiency: risk is at the heart of insurance, and risk management is fundamentally about diversification. She points out that syndicates operating only in the US could expand into Europe with minimal additional capital impact—because diversification reduces concentration risk and can lower the cost of capital. The statistical power of pooling risks is what makes insurance affordable at scale. In short: together, we take risk better. From “buying” to partnerships: the era has changed Amélie also highlights a shift that founders and enterprise leaders should pay attention to: the industry is moving from a “we’ll buy it” mindset to a true partnership era. Why does that matter? Because partnerships allow startups to work with multiple carriers, increase diversity of learning, and spread innovation faster across the ecosystem — without burning teams out through endless acquisition cycles. The data problem: yesterday’s risk doesn’t model tomorrow’s world Insurers have mountains of data… but much of it is becoming outdated. Amélie explains why: as industries evolve, the nature of risk changes. In motor, for example, we’re moving toward autonomous vehicles—meaning driver behaviour becomes less important, while software integrity and battery performance become critical. Then there are frontier risks where we have no historical dataset at all: carbon capture, space travel, emerging technologies. The conclusion is uncomfortable but undeniable: We can’t insure tomorrow’s risks with yesterday’s data. Coopetition: the strategy to unlock the inaccessible market Perhaps the most provocative idea in this episode is Amélie’s call for “coopetition”—competitors working together to unlock markets that are currently uninsurable or unaffordable. By collaborating on shared infrastructure, smarter pricing, and diversified capacity, insurers can open access to protection for more people and businesses. That’s how you close the protection gap—not by competing harder, but by building smarter together. The next evolution: from PDFs to true digital exchange Amélie describes today’s transformation as “moving from paper to PDF.” Necessary, but not revolutionary. The next wave is bigger: fully digitalised exchanges across the value chain, with better access to data, distributed underwriting, and multi-layer diversification—captured in her vision for next-gen insurance infrastructure like Euro DIEM. Why this episode matters For executives, founders, and market shapers, this conversation is a blueprint for the next era of insurance: diversify to lower capital strain partner to move faster modernise data to match emerging risks collaborate to unlock inaccessible markets Because the future of insurance won’t be defined by who plays it safest. It will be defined by who dares to build the systems that let society take the next leap.
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Amélie Breitburd: How Coopetition Could Double Europe’s Insurance Market
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