Joel Agard: Driving into Zurich Insurance’s Venture Client Engine

What this episode covers

On this episode of Scouting For Growth, Sabine VdL sits down with Joel Agard, Group Head of Innovation at Zurich Insurance, the leader behind one of the most effective corporate-startup engines in the insurance industry — driving partnerships and pilots across 40+ markets. This is not an episode about “cool tech.” It’s an episode about how a 150-year-old giant learns to move at startup speed — without breaking trust, compliance, or the business. The origin story: a World Cup idea that became a global innovation engine Joel shares the spark that launched Zurich’s now-famous Innovation Championship: the 2018 football World Cup. At the time, working with startups in insurance wasn’t the default. Zurich, like many large organisations, was partnering mostly with big technology providers. Joel and his team asked a simple but powerful question: How do we show the art of the possible — and prove startup collaboration can actually work? That’s when they created the Zurich Innovation World Championship: a structured “competition-style” platform to raise awareness, attract high-quality ventures, and build a repeatable process for corporate-startup engagement. The hardest part: aligning pace, expectations, and risk appetite Joel is candid about the early friction: startups move fast because they have to. Zurich moves carefully because it must. The challenge wasn’t capability — it was tempo. So the breakthrough wasn’t a new tool. It was designing a safe environment where Zurich teams could: test quickly learn fast and accept that “failure” is part of innovation — if it’s cheap, fast, and controlled The lesson every enterprise needs: shiny tech isn’t the point Joel admits something many innovation leaders won’t say out loud: it’s easy to fall in love with exciting technology. He’s a self-described geek — and proudly so. But Zurich learned the hard way that even brilliant tech isn’t valuable if it doesn’t solve a real problem for customers or internal stakeholders. Sometimes it’s simply too early. Sometimes it’s not a fit. Innovation isn’t about what’s possible. It’s about what’s useful. Making “fail fast” real inside a big corporation One of the most important cultural wins Joel describes: shifting the perception of failure. In large organisations, failure often comes with fear, reputation risk, and internal resistance. Zurich proved that failing fast and cheaply isn’t reckless — it’s responsible innovation. And once teams see it working, experimentation becomes normal rather than dangerous. COVID accelerated everything — including startup pilots Like many organisations, Zurich used the pandemic moment as an accelerator. With digital transformation suddenly urgent, the team increased startup pilots and expanded opportunities to move initiatives forward faster than the old playbook would ever allow. Why Zurich wins with startups: the right trade Joel sums up the partnership dynamic beautifully: Zurich brings brand, reputation, and 150 years of insurance expertise. Startups bring agility, speed, and digital-native execution. When done well, it’s not vendor procurement — it’s a strategic partnership where both sides multiply each other. Why this episode matters For enterprise leaders, founders, and innovation teams, this episode is a blueprint for venture-client success: build a repeatable engagement model (not one-off pilots) align expectations on pace and risk early create safe environments for fast experimentation obsess over real business problems, not shiny technology treat “fail fast” as a discipline, not a slogan Because innovation isn’t about showing off. It’s about building partnerships that actually deliver results — market by market, pilot by pilot, win by win.