IMA Financial Group has announced the launch of IMA Web3Labs, the metaverse’s first insurance and risk management research facility. IMA Web3Labs will be located in Decentraland, a virtual world based on blockchain technology.
Funded by IMA’s investment arm, IMA Investments, the virtual research facility will test, explore and bring to market risk and insurance strategies specific to the metaverse.
“IMA is known as a thoughtful and strategic partner that finds innovative and effective solutions to manage risk for our clients,” said Paul Washington, executive vice president of IMA Financial Group and head of IMA Investments. “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.”
IMA said it recognized a gap between the growth in NFTs and fundamental risk transfer and management strategies to secure them – a gap that means a risk for business operations in the decentralized finance market. In 2021, $20 billion worth of NFTs were traded, and the market value of the asset class currently exceeds $40 billion. IMA plans to mint its own NFTs and use other tools to advance its expertise in the digital and meta opportunities ecosystem, the company said.
“We aren’t content to take the ‘wait and see’ approach that our industry often favors,” said Justin Jacobs, senior vice president of marketing at IMA Financial Group and architect of IMA Web3Labs. “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 risk beyond the confines of the metaverse.”
