Volt’Terre: The cultivation of ideas by Groupama
With the Volt’Terre programme, Groupama has opened five thematic start-up accelerators across the whole territory. Their mission is to develop innovation across the Group by bringing together targeted start-ups and Groupama teams to co-build innovative and useful solutions for our customers.
Since 2022, the Volt’Terre open-innovation programme has been involving all nine Groupama regional mutuals as well as Groupama Gan Vie. It is based on five thematic accelerators that cover the whole territory: savings and pensions in Paris, sustainable mobility and homes in Lyon, health and benefits in Rennes, operational performance in Le Mans, professional and agricultural markets in Toulouse. Each of the accelerators is led by an innovation expert from Groupama’s teams, supported by a consultant from Linkio, Groupama’s open innovation consulting partner.
Meeting with Romain Créteur, Groupama Deputy Director of Strategy & Partnerships
What are the objectives of the Volt’Terre programme?
Romain Créteur : The primary objective of the programme is to be useful, to create useful solutions and to contribute to the Group’s effort to achieve its ambition: to become “the Champion of customer support”. There are three other objectives that are more specific. First, it is about spreading a culture of innovation within the Group through collaborations with start-ups that allow us to step outside the day-to-day work environment and find different approaches. It is also, in full coherence with our CSR strategy, about actively contributing to the sustainable development of the regions by supporting young innovative businesses from those areas and allowing them to benefit from the resources and working methods of a large group so that they can become more robust. However, it is important to point out that Volt’Terre is not a start-up incubation programme, but an acceleration programme for joint projects between Groupama and these start-ups. And finally, it is about publicising the innovations of Groupama, which collaborates with the ecosystem of start-ups so that as many as possible can benefit from their creativity.
Why five accelerators in the territory rather than just one?
R.C.: Proximity is an intrinsic principle of mutualism, and the Group’s organisational model is based around its regional and local mutuals. This is why Volt’Terre’s spirit of collaborative working is also embodied in five locations, made available to receive start-ups and Groupama employees. In Le Mans, operational performance for Groupama Centre Manche and Groupama Nord-Est; in Rennes, health and benefits for Groupama Loire Bretagne and Groupama Pays Val de Loire; in Lyon, sustainable mobility and homes for Groupama Rhone-Alpes Auvergne and Groupama Grand Est; in Toulouse, professional and agricultural markets for Groupama Centre Atlantique, Groupama d’Oc and Groupama Méditerranée; and finally in Paris, savings and pensions for Groupama Gan Vie. In each case, it is the leading entities on these themes that provide the driving force for the accelerator.
How are the start-ups that join the Volt’Terre programme targeted?
R.C.: This begins with a phase of expression of needs. We identify with the functional departments the “stone in the shoe” issues for which they have not, to date, found a satisfactory solution. The idea is to target a start-up that is working on this issue and has something interesting to offer. From there, the graft between the requesting business line and the start-up that wishes to grow its project has every chance of success! We also allow ourselves the possibility, each season, of bringing on board one or two “nugget” start-ups that we find promising for our business lines, even if the need for their solution has not yet been clearly expressed. Because an innovation programme must remain open!
What does the partner Linkio bring to you in this programme?
R.C.: Their consultants are very complementary to our teams because they bring us an outside perspective right from the needs identification phase. Linkio works with numerous insurers, including mutualists within the framework of French Assurtech, and sheds light for us on the main topics of reflection in the sector. This represents an additional value and allows us to challenge ourselves. They also have a real business relevance because they know the issues at stake for the insurance sector. And finally, they are constantly in contact with insurtechs and help us to assess the best potential partners for the Volt’Terre programme.
What projects arising from the programme are being tested or rolled out at Groupama?
R.C.: Many projects are currently being rolled out, but I would mention in particular Fri Liv with its retirement preparation programme, now rolled out by Groupama Gan Vie, Mycophyto, which provides personalised microbiological solutions to farmers in order to boost the natural biodiversity of soils, as well as Papisy, with whom we have worked on the creation of a people-centred savings product. And then there is Apodis, with whom we have developed a new e-health functionality to help patients better manage their medicine cabinet, including expiry dates and the risks of self-medication and drug interaction.
Why “Volt’Terre”?
“Let us cultivate our garden”, says Candide at the end of the story of the same name written by Voltaire. Symbolically, it reminds us that everyone must exercise their talents and play their part in progressing society. With the Volt’Terre programme, Groupama is playing its part in the Group’s journey to achieve its ambition and in the development of young innovative businesses in the regions. Volt’Terre is also the combination of Volt, which symbolises creativity and innovation in the manner of a small bulb that lights up, and Terre (Earth), in reference to the Group’s identity and because the earth is worked, is cultivated, like ideas.
“Volt’Terre is an open-innovation project that represents a benchmark in the sector”
Alexandre Jeanney, founder of Linkio
Linkio supports insurance industry players in addressing innovation and transformation challenges. “We are the leading operator of accelerators in InsurTech, being involved in eight different acceleration programmes, including French Assurtech created by major players in the world of mutual insurance companies, notably Groupama. We are fortunate to support Volt’Terre, which is, to date, the most ambitious acceleration programme implemented by an insurer in France. One of its strengths lies in the deployment not of one generalist accelerator, but of five accelerators, each specialising in a particular theme. Dividing the subjects up in this way allows us to move much faster.”
A.J :
Linkio positions itself as a trusted third party and facilitator between Groupama and the start-ups involved in the programme, in order to ensure a successful “landing” for open-innovation projects within the allotted time. “Our work begins with identifying the priority issues and needs of the various market and business lines at Groupama, because innovation only makes sense if it serves the Group’s strategy and operational performance. This is a fundamental and structural step, because it is from this analysis that we can identify the solutions that will contribute to the expected transformations and then identify, within our European ecosystem, the start-ups that can offer them.”
The sourced start-ups are presented to the relevant business lines, and a “Selection Day” makes it possible to select those that will join the programme’s five thematic accelerators. “Our role is to validate the solidity and maturity of the start-up, its concept or its technology, since the objective is to achieve industrialisation within Groupama.”
The selected start-ups enter the Volt’Terre process, which is aimed not at accelerating the start-up itself but rather the project that it co-builds with Groupama. They are supported on a daily basis by a Linkio consultant specialising in the innovation field concerned. “This programme is essentially a POC that we deploy over several months in order to validate the value proposition in all its aspects, including the regulatory angle and its potential for industrialisation, and to verify that it delivers on its expectations, be it in terms of operational efficiency, symmetry of attention, customer relations etc. Linkio’s role is to act as a guardrail on these points, and to alert or refocus the project if necessary, until the preparation of the industrialisation phase within Groupama.”
“Volt’Terre was a real accelerator for giving my project concrete form”
Anne-Sophie Le Berre-Doudet, founder of Fri Liv
How was the Fri Liv concept born?
A-S. L B-D : “What makes you want to get up in the morning?” It was this question around the quest for meaning and my own mother’s retirement that led me to create Fri Liv, a start-up dedicated to preparing for this new stage of life and enjoying a happy retirement. Driven by the desire to help future retirees undertake meaningful life projects, I embarked on the entrepreneurial adventure in 2020. After a market study and then a visit to an incubator, which allowed me to frame the concept and the business model, I joined the Volt’Terre acceleration programme in early 2023.
How did Volt’Terre help you develop your project?
A-S. L B-D : For a first-time entrepreneur, it’s an incredible opportunity to be able to collaborate with the teams of a large group like Groupama. It also gave me the chance to realise my desire to offer future retirees access to ways of preparing for a rewarding retirement, and was the ideal opportunity to transform my vision into reality. Throughout the partnership, I also discovered that Groupama was rooted in strong people-centred values and that its employees were driven by a sincere desire to find value-added solutions for society. And finally, Volt’Terre really gave me the means to make my idea a reality, through the commitment of its teams who were at my side for a year and through financial support.
What’s the state of play with the rollout of the Fri-Liv programme with Groupama?
A-S. L B-D : With Olivier Claeys, Director of the Digital Factory, as my mentor, I was able to co-build with Groupama Gan Vie a digital training programme based around five e-learning modules. This programme is now offered, free of charge, to Groupama Gan Vie’s corporate group insurance customers so that they can provide it to their own senior employees. Retirement is complex. Employees are happy to turn to their company for information, but HR departments do not necessarily have the time or skills for this subject. The digital programme co-designed with Groupama, which is intuitive and user-friendly, provides all the essential information to anticipate and make the right decisions for the end of your career and for your retirement. It addresses both the administrative and the emotional aspects. In addition to this digital solution, Fri Liv offers companies a more comprehensive seven-week programme to support their senior employees on the path to an active and meaningful retirement.
