Scott Gunther’s background has always centred around building bridges between understanding technology and applying it in business settings. This interest stretches back to the start of his career during the original dot com boom in the late 90s. He built an appreciation of the opportunities emerging technologies and data could have on the world.
Gunther, General Partner at IAG Firemark Ventures, was part of Australia’s leading telco at the time, Telstra. He helped build its online platforms and broadband services. He later migrated through sales, marketing, and customer-facing roles. Graduating from there to edge technology and applications, working in different verticals in global companies. Gunther has spent over a decade at IAG, starting on the customer and partner side of the insurance business. Before diving into IAG Firemark Ventures, IAG’s corporate venture capital fund. Today Gunther leads the Ventures team, made up of business leaders, to identify, invest into, and leverage the company’s startup investments, to transform the future of insurance.
“Innovative technology and data have always been passions of mine, but it’s the application that’s really exciting,” he explains. “Examining changing customer behaviour, looking at broader macro trends and themes, and being able to have a bit of an aspirational view of the world – that’s where the disruption starts.”
Transforming How Insurance is Delivered
When IAG set up Firemark Ventures, it was something Gunther knew he had to be part of. From the beginning, the purpose of IAG’s corporate venture capital (CVC) unit was clear: bring the outside world in by investing and partnering with startups to transform how IAG delivered insurance. IAG Firemark Ventures was officially launched in late 2016.
“That purpose really resonates with me, because one of the key things for me has always been thinking about how to look at emerging tech, disruptive business models, or unique sources of data, and find opportunities to apply that to really make a difference for customers,” says Gunther. “Over nine years later, IAG Firemark Ventures is going from strength to strength.”
Innovation Through a Macro Lens
IAG Firemark Ventures strives to view topics through a macro lens. That’s something Gunther discussed with us back in 2022, and that’s still the case – it’s only become bigger and better. “Back in the early 2010s building an innovation function became the thing to do,” says Gunther. “You’d see all these big banks and other big companies setting up their innovation labs and bringing in the cool kids to play with toys and try to disrupt. The thing about these innovation labs is they require a build mentality. That’s at odds with corporate venture capitals; instead of building, you’re investing in partnering.
“As such, we attempted a multi-pronged approach. We set up an innovation lab, but also a corporate venture capital unit. In the years since then, a lot of innovation labs have fallen by the wayside. Many have started and failed. There has to be a purpose. For IAG, our internal innovation labs delivered some insightful opportunities. But in 2023, we made the decision that internal innovation is best delivered in teams that are close to the customer, enhanced with customer experience, digital and analytics teams sitting within the operating divisions. Whilst our Ventures team looks for opportunities to focus on external innovation through partners that bring new capability into IAG.”