IMA Financial Group unveils first metaverse insurance and risk management R&D facility

Metaverse insurance

The Web3Labs has now opened in Decentraland, which is a blockchain tech-based virtual world.

IMA Financial Group recently announced that it is launching the first metaverse insurance and risk management research and development facility, which it has called the IMA Web3Labs.

The new Web3Labs R&D facility was funded by the IMA’s investment arm, IMA Investments Inc.

The metaverse insurance R&D facility will be located in Decentraland, which is a blockchain technology-based virtual world. The goal for Web3Labs is to set new industry expectations for the testing, exploration and bringing to market of new risk and coverage strategies specific to the virtual reality ecosystem.

“IMA is known as a thoughtful and strategic partner that finds innovative and effective solutions to manage risk for our clients,” said IMA Financial Group executive vice president and head of IMA Investments Paul Washington. “Web3Labs allows us to explore the risks associated with digital and meta assets from within the metaverse, so we can better prepare our clients to manage such risks. Our investment in IMA Web3Labs will also enable IMA to explore the infinite applications of blockchain technology to best understand how it might fundamentally shift the landscape of the $1 trillion commercial insurance industry.”

Metaverse insurance - NFT (Non-fungible Token)

IMA Web3Labs metaverse insurance R&D will start by focusing on non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

The first focus for IMA Web3Labs will be into the mitigation of risk specific to non-fungible tokens (NFTs). IMA has a lengthy history of building coverage programs and risk management strategies customized to clients in emerging and complex industries. It has identified a gap in NFT growth specific to fundamental risk transfer and management strategies for securing them. This gap leaves decentralized finance market business operations at risk, said Washington.

Last year, $20 billion in NFTs were traded. Today, the market value of the asset class is greater than $40 billion. IMA intends to mint its own NFTs in addition to other tools for moving its expertise forward in the evolving virtual and meta opportunities sphere.

“We aren’t content to take the ‘wait and see’ approach that our industry often favors,” said Senior Vice President of Marketing at IMA Financial Group Justin Jacobs, who is also the IMA Web3Labs architect at IMA Financial Group in a news release about the metaverse insurance R&D lab. “Society is at an inflection point, proven out by the popularity of meta-platforms. We need the ability to swiftly test, learn and adjust in a meta-native environment so we can build strategies and products that manage risks beyond the confines of the metaverse.”

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