Two days later - after hundreds of conversations, two pitches in the now-iconic startup boxing ring, and more concrete pilot project discussions than we could properly process in real time - we left Cologne with one clear takeaway: insureNXT has become one of the most important dates on our industry calendar.

This is our recap.

The setting: why insureNXT matters now

Trade shows in insurance have a reputation. For decades, they were buttoned-up affairs - executives shaking hands, slide decks moving between meeting rooms, "innovation" announced for a year that never quite arrives.

insureNXT broke that mold.

What''s happening in Cologne is something genuinely different. Carriers come ready to do business. Insurtechs come ready to build. Reinsurers come ready to write the checks. And everyone - everyone - comes ready to talk about implementation, not just inspiration.

For an early-stage team like ours, that signal matters. We didn''t come to Cologne to introduce ourselves to a sleepy industry. We came to have real conversations.

The boxing ring: why format matters

One of the moments that captured the spirit of insureNXT best was the startup boxing ring. A real ring - ropes, corner posts, lights overhead - set up in the middle of the expo floor. Founders climbed in. Investors and carriers crowded the rail. Pitches were short. No slides to hide behind.

We pitched there twice over the two days.

It sounds gimmicky until you actually do it. Then you realize the ring is the perfect physical metaphor for what early-stage insurtech actually is. Short. Focused. Clear. Just the idea, the team, and the conviction that this is going to work.

Both pitches generated real interest. Calendars got filled. Follow-up meetings got booked. Several of the conversations we had at the rail of that ring are now turning into pilot projects.

What 100+ conversations told us about where the industry is going

We came to listen as much as to talk. Across our booth, the InsurLab Germany pavilion, the networking dinners, and the hallway conversations that often beat the keynotes - three things came up again and again.

1. The "AI question" has changed - fundamentally

Two years ago, the conversation in our industry was: Should we use AI? Last year: What should we use it for? This year: Who can help us actually ship it?

That''s an enormous shift, and the implications are everywhere. Carriers are no longer looking for vendors with the most polished AI demos. They''re looking for partners who can ship into production - handling their data, their constraints, their compliance posture, their legacy systems. The conversation has moved from theory to integration.

That''s exactly where Vectoryx sits.

2. Claims is having its moment

If there was a thematic winner of insureNXT 2026, it was claims.

Across keynote stages, pitch competitions, and the quiet booth conversations where the real business gets done, claims came up over and over again as the use case where AI delivers measurable, defensible value today. Not five years from now. Not next year. Next quarter.

That matches everything we''re seeing in our own pipeline. Claims is where automation lifts margin, AI improves the customer experience, and where the ROI math is finally straightforward enough that conservative carriers can justify it to their boards.

3. The ecosystem is finally clicking

The biggest single difference between insureNXT and other industry events is the mix of people in the room.

Carriers, insurtechs, reinsurers, regulators, consultancies, investors - all in the same building, having the same conversations. Less "innovation by PowerPoint." More "let''s build this together." Less hierarchy. More handshakes that turn into projects.

You can''t engineer this kind of compression somewhere else. It has to be in person, it has to be intense, and it has to be a place where the decision-makers actually show up. insureNXT is that place.

A special word about InsurLab Germany

We have to take a moment here, because this story doesn''t get told honestly without them.

Vectoryx is part of the current InsurLab Germany batch, and that partnership has made a real difference for us. Being part of this batch has meant:

• Doors that are usually hard to open for a young company suddenly opening - to carriers, to reinsurers, to decision-makers we couldn''t have reached on our own.
• Real mentorship from people who know this industry from the inside, not from a deck.
• A network of fellow founders building in adjacent spaces, sharing what works and - just as valuably - what doesn''t.
• A platform at insureNXT itself - the introductions, the curated meetings, the credibility that comes from being part of a batch that this industry takes seriously.

Robert Richstein and the entire InsurLab Germany team gave Vectoryx the kind of start at this expo that very few early-stage insurtechs in Germany get.

To Robert and the InsurLab team: thank you. Genuinely.

And to Lars Müller, Eva Rübhausen, and the entire Koelnmesse team - you''ve built something the whole industry now depends on. insureNXT 2026 was exceptionally well run.

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See you at insureNXT 2027 - we''re already looking forward to the next one.

What is InsurLab Germany?

InsurLab Germany e.V. is the InsurTech competence network of the German insurance market, based in Cologne and originally co-funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs. It connects insurers, brokers, industrial carriers, start-ups, academia and policy makers in a structured setting - and is one of the few formats in Germany where established carriers and young companies actually work together operationally, not just on panel stages.

The batch program curates a selected group of InsurTechs and brings them into focused, multi-month engagement with the network's members and partners - anchored on concrete use cases, pilots and market readiness.

Why it matters for us

For Vectoryx, this selection is relevant for three reasons:

• Access to decision makers at German carriers, brokers and industrial insurers - in a setting built for operational conversations.
• A structured framework for joint pilots and co-innovation, instead of one-off introductory meetings.
• Visibility in a market where trust, references and institutional anchoring carry more weight than pure product mechanics.

Where we focus

One of the biggest unsolved problems in P&C claims is not the workflow at the end - it is the first touch at the beginning. Fragmented intake, unclear first information and lost time between FNOL and the first decision cost carriers cycle time, customer satisfaction and combined ratio.

That is exactly where we work: turning unstructured input - calls, forms, photos, emails - into a structured, decision-ready claim. Not digitizing the existing process, but rethinking the entry point.

In May: insureNXT in Cologne

Right after this, we will be in Cologne in May for insureNXT - one of Europe's most important conferences for insurance and InsurTech. If you are there as a carrier, broker, founder or partner: come and talk to us. We are looking for conversations that get operational - not polite rounds.

Next steps

If you would like to evaluate a pilot or an integration with us, you will find us on the Pilot page. To set up a meeting at insureNXT, a short note to hello@vectoryx.ai is enough.

See you in Cologne.

What is the Global Insurance Symposium?

The Global Insurance Symposium (GIS) takes place every year in Des Moines, Iowa - the traditional US insurance hub. It brings together carriers, reinsurers, investors, regulators and InsurTech founders for three days in one place. Unlike many tech conferences, GIS is intentionally curated: less stage, more substance.

GIS is closely tied to the Global Insurance Accelerator (GIA) - the oldest InsurTech accelerator program in the United States. For every GIA cohort, GIS is the public graduation moment: the first time the work of the past months is shown to a broader industry audience.

Why we were there: Global Insurance Accelerator graduation

Vectoryx was selected for the 2026 Global Insurance Accelerator. Over several months we worked with mentors from leading US carriers, brokers and restoration companies on a single question: what does claims look like when you do not digitize the existing process, but rethink it from the very first touch?

GIS was the formal close of that program for us - demo day, investor sessions, curated carrier meetings, and a pitch on the main stage.

The pitch

What we showed on stage can be summarized in one sentence: claims has to get better at the beginning, not at the end. Most claims do not fail in the 25th workflow step - they fail at the first call, the first photo, the first letter. That is where Vectoryx starts, and that is the shift of leverage we made on the main stage.

Special thanks to Jacob for the precise intro - anyone who sets the context in two sentences makes half the pitch.

Three takeaways

• Carriers are looking for solutions at the first touch - not for the fiftieth dashboard. If you handle FNOL, triage and first documentation well, you take pressure off everything downstream.
• Cycle time and customer experience are becoming a shared currency across claims, underwriting and operations. Combined-ratio arguments still matter - but they no longer carry the conversation alone.
• The US market is more open to end-to-end rethinking than commonly assumed. The willingness to question existing processes is greater inside many carriers than the vendor side tends to believe.

Thank you

Thank you to Cory McAnelly and the entire GIS team for an exceptionally well-curated event, to the full team at the Global Insurance Accelerator for a demanding, fair and very personal program, and to everyone we met across Des Moines.

Next steps

If you are a carrier, broker or restoration partner in the US and would like to talk to us about a pilot or an integration, you will find us on the Pilot page. We are taking the energy from Des Moines with us - and turning it into the next conversation.

With Insights, we are creating a space to write about exactly that. Not technology for its own sake, but the question of how claims processes can be organized better from the very first moment.

What you can expect

• Claims operations: What we learn from thousands of claims about bottlenecks, handoffs and escalations.
• AI in practice: Where automation holds up, where it fails - and why 80% of AI pilots never reach production.
• The insurer view: Combined ratio, cycle time, customer satisfaction. What measurably shifts when the first notice of loss looks different.
• Property management: How managers can document damages so they get settled faster.
• Restoration partners: What contractors need to work cleanly, quickly and predictably.

Our point of view

We do not believe in digitizing existing workflows. We believe in rethinking them from the start - with data, clear ownership and tools that take work off everyone's plate instead of just shifting it around.

That is why Insights will not appear on a weekly cadence. But every post will add something - from a customer conversation, an industry event or a field observation.

Stay close

If you would like to follow along, subscribe to our newsletter in the footer. And if you want to talk operations - a pilot, an integration, or simply a second opinion - you will find us on the Pilot page.

Thank you for being here.