Bupa Blue Table

Bupa is an international health insurance and healthcare company with over 43 million customers in over 190 countries.

L Marks partnered with healthcare group Bupa to create Bupa Blue Table, an innovation programme designed to bring Bupa together with startups and small businesses developing cutting-edge technologies. The programme provided a structured environment for collaboration between the two.

Bupa Blue Table invited emerging companies to help address Bupa’s key customer challenges in insurance, healthcare experiences and wellbeing change. Startups had the opportunity to pilot and test their ideas, while also making a positive impact on the millions of customers Bupa serves globally.

The programme received a total of 198 applications, of which 150 were finalised. Applicants came from 23 different countries, with the U.K. representing 53% of all finalised submissions. Nearly half of the applications were from startups with products already on the market, most of which were founded in 2015 or later. From these, 26 startups were invited to participate in the Blue Table pitch day, and 5 were selected to join the lab.

Onaria Technologies

Onaria Technologies is a dental app that provides a plaque and gum health assessment using a picture of your teeth

Collaboration

As an early-stage company in the programme, Onaria had access to significant resources and support to help them achieve their goals.

Onaria joined the programme to advance their product development and understand their market fit. During the ten weeks, they developed a series of 3D-printed mouthpieces and held over 22 qualitative interviews to gain further insight into people’s dental experience. Additionally, Onaria received expert guidance on structuring their company to comply with medical regulations, managing data collection and storage, and commercialising their product.

Outcomes

Following the programme,  Onaria aimed to further enhance their hardware, brand, design, and app. They also focused on bringing their product to market by building partnerships and creating an ecosystem with dental care providers, insurance companies, and smart tech hardware firms.

SPIXII

SPIXII is a regulated AI-driven sales solution that automates the digital customer journey, offering companies valuable insights into their customers. It enables users to personalise interactions for each client, enhancing customer loyalty, creating a more human buying experience, and driving higher conversion rates.

Collaboration

During the programme, Spixii received significant resources to develop and integrate its pilot as it required 3-4 weeks of work. During the programme, Bupa decided to facilitate discussions between Spixii and the Bupa Customer Insights team as well as further coordinate with I.T. to reduce any potential delays in the product going live.

Outcomes

At the end of the 10-week period, Spixii and the Bupa team had overcome an array of obstacles, particularly around internal integration with Bupa’s network and regulatory compliance.