A team of engineers and product developers from life insurance and financial management company Northwestern Mutual have created a software application that allows fitness enthusiasts to digitally view how they’re performing against other competitors during a race or challenge, anywhere in the world, a product that could prove valuable in the $100 billion global fitness industry.
The software application also is designed for race and multi-sport event organizers to help digitally manage competitions, with features like virtual check-ins and an ability to change settings for new goals or objectives within an event.
ProQuo, the name of the product, is the first product to come out of Northwestern Mutual’s new venture studio. The Milwaukee-based company launched the studio this year to turn product ideas into new businesses, and to partner with entrepreneurs and inventors to transform their business ventures into commercialized, scalable products and services.
The venture studio is operated from Cream City Labs on the Northwestern Mutual campus in downtown Milwaukee and is designed to grow ideas within the financial technology and health and wellness industries.
ProQuo, which took two months to develop and went live six weeks ago, operates as a subsidiary of Northwestern Mutual, which posted revenue of $32 billion in 2019. Through the software, race event organizers can share the competitors’ progress during challenges and scavenger hunts. The data is generated from wearable devices worn by the athletes, like Apple Watch and Fitbit.
So far, more than 110 racing clubs across the globe are using the platform, which represents a few thousand users. The company also is having conversations with other brands about using the platform, said Nick Wichert, senior director at the Northwestern Mutual Venture Studio.
ProQuo is currently exploring pricing models for the software.
“As we start to get more users on board and they start to share more data, they’ll be able to opt in to see offers from brands who are filtering the products specifically to the data the user is sharing,” Wichert said. “It’s a way for a brand to really get targetive, and then it also helps the athletes because they are now seeing products that are best fit for them based on the activity and data they are generating.”
Northwestern Mutual also is viewing ProQuo as a potential new source of data to underwrite from in the future, Wichert said.
“Wearables are kind of a next phase for a lot of insurance carriers, so what we’re able to do is learn about the data that is being shared and we’re able to analyze it on our end, and at a high level, give back some education and learning back to NM as to what that means, particularly around technology integration.”
