Stephen Brittain

Co-Founder & CD of Insurtech Gateway

Stephen wants to solve big problems and he’s finally built the platform to do it.

Stephen built Insurtech Gateway, to give the world’s best founders access to the $2trn insurance markets. He is seeking Founders to de-risk climate innovation, to put the fairness back into tech, and to inspire the insurance sector to step up as an enabler of the next generation of business.

Stephen grew up in the shadow of Silverstone, UK's Formula 1 circuit in a motor-racing family, learning the importance of product design and testing from a young age. After getting lost on a mountain hike in 2003, Stephen developed and patented origami mountain maps, building this into an international publishing business. This put him on a 20-year path of product innovation and fund raising in between corporate innovation and entrepreneurs including programs for BBC, Nicoventures, and Nike Foundation. Through a chance encounter he met insurance entrepreneurs Rob Lumley and Richard Chattock, and together they created the innovative Insurtech Gateway venture builder platform.

Stephen’s belief that ‘quality is the only business plan’, puts a high conviction in founders, his team members, and the slow cadence of the Gateway to support new businesses one at a time with committed insurer partners. He holds a Masters degree from the Royal College of Art and Imperial College London in Industrial design Engineering.

Maria Čoko

Head of Portfolio Management at Insurtech Gateway

Maria supports Insurtech Gateway’s portfolio founders through their incubation, helping them identify and hit key investment and insurance metrics at early stages of their journey. Entrepreneurs face a lot of challenges bringing a truly innovative product to market and at the Gateway we help founders get to market and understand the critical success factors.

Maria also handles various Gateway operational aspects across the incubator and fund management. Previously, Maria spent 4 years in the insurance team at Oliver Wyman, focusing on the strategic initiatives for global insurers.

Something we don't know about Maria that she went to the final stage of qualifying for the Bolshoi Theatre Ballet School but was told that she was too tall, so she devoted herself to Ballroom and Latin dancing instead. 

Simon O'Dell

Managing Director at Insurtech Gateway Australia

Simon spent 10 years as an insurance intermediary technician, and the past 8 years breaking down barriers to unlock the insurance market to Insurtech founders. Simon is a start-up founder, an MBA and Y-Combinator graduate, Co-Founder of the not-for-profit Insurtech Australia and now the for-profit Insurtech Gateway Australia. 

O'Dell is an identical twin, with 6 older brothers. The one that inspired him the most was his alternate, anti-establishment, almost hippy brother Chris. He had long hair, a combie van, a guitar, he loved the natural world and lived in Byron Bay when it rocked in the 90s. 

If innovation is about imagining the future and identifying what, from today's products and services are missing, then Simon’s brother was highly innovative. He foresaw the shortcomings, the problems with products and services in the 90s, their inability to service needs in the post climate change era, and championed for solutions. Having been strongly influenced by him, Simon is now executing the values and vision his brother embodied.