Descartes Underwriting: a Sponsor Committed to Promoting Equality of Opportunity

A partnership with the ENS Paris-Saclay for the future

From primary to high-school, all the way up to the ENS, Paris-Saclay put in place a plan to promote equality of opportunity, as well as diversity in higher education and research. This plan is composed of three programs: summer school, a new way to be accepted into the School, and a mentorship program between our students and school children. This program aims to:

• support young students from primary school onward,
• help them picture themselves pursuing challenging scientific studies,
• and fight for diversity in higher education and research.

Descartes Underwriting, founded in 2018 and specialized in parametric climate risk insurance, chose to join forces with the ENS Paris-Saclay for three years, supporting its mentorship program. This program allows 125 primary school students to discover research with the guidance of our students, to visit our laboratories and to conduct a scientific experiment. This partnership is an important step in their Corporate Social Responsibility strategy.

It is often said that CSR is at a standstill in startups, that they care more about ‘business’ and growth than about their social impact, because they are not legally obligated to, as opposed to big companies. [...] We are ready to take action in favor of diversity, and even more committed to support and help along actions already undertaken. Ready to commit to change, we are really glad to sign this partnership on the elementary school sponsorship program, and to support students who take part in raising awareness of science and research in schoolchildren. Sana Nabli, head of recruitment at Descartes Underwriting

Interview with Sana Nabli

You are in charge of recruitment at Descartes Underwriting; can you present your company?

We work in Insurtech, so we are a society that works in parametric insurance for climate-related risks. We insure big companies and public organizations in over 40 countries against cyclones, bushfires, strong winds, inundations, thunderstorms… We are a team of 110 collaborators from 25 different countries, working in 8 different hubs in the United-States, Singapore, Sidney, London, Madrid, Hong-Kong, Frankfurt, and Paris.

How was the name of Descartes Underwriting chosen?

At Descartes Underwriting, we have a truly scientific culture. Our homage to René Descartes, one of the greatest mathematicians and French philosophers of all time, and creator of scientific inquiry through doubt, was an obvious choice. He inspires us!

Do you already see yourselves as an international company?

And yet, we are still a French startup company. We are part of NextCount (editor’s note: the top 40 French startups) and are solidly implanted in the international market. Over 50% of our turnover comes from countries outside of the European Union, but we remain a French startup company.

What challenges are you planning to tackle next?

We must tackle two great challenges: go from 100 to 200 employees within the next 12 months, and keep investing at the same rate on the study of climate change, because we insure big companies against it. Understanding such meteorological phenomena requires a lot of manpower, including data scientists, DevOps, and especially highly qualified people in meteorology and climatology. These are our most important challenges.

You recently took part in the MVA forum; what profiles are you looking for?

We look for DevOps, Software engineers, data scientists, but also for business-oriented profiles specialising on international issues. We work with students who are motivated to work on climate-related issues, who are passionate about science and data. We don’t require any professional experience in the field of insurance or climate, just that the students be interested in multiple areas tied to climate. Descartes Underwriting is very selective in its hiring process, that is for sure. We have already hired several students and we realized just how much intellectual, technical and theoretical skills they can have. The ENS Paris-Saclay and Descartes Underwriting share the same interest in fundamental research, applied science, and a highly experimental approach! Students in the MVA Master’s program have this double-interest in fundamental research and applied mathematics.

Has your startup had the opportunity to develop a CSR policy yet?

It is often said that CSR is at a standstill among startups, that they care more about “business” and growth than social impact, compared to bigger companies. That is not the case at all at Descartes Underwriting. We truly take our social and environmental impact into account in our strategies. It is really important, and we put more and more actions in place in different areas, in keeping with our activity in different climate-related fields. We are on the frontlines, we can witness the economical consequences of climate change, the increase in natural disasters each year. Descartes Underwriting is working on its carbon footprint: we partnered up with Bpifrance, and our teams conduct internal audits to improve on that point.

Is that your only CSR policy?

Our second priority is gender parity. With the participation of all our collaborators, we want to make our practices align with our values. Today, we are responsible for protecting a diverse portfolio of clients, but also for the visibility of less seen but incredibly valuable teams. It is our duty to create an inclusive work environment, a source of innovation and inspiration to work on a common goal. Fostering confidence, and transparency in the field of insurance, it all goes hand in hand.

What are you doing to make this come true?

The Climate Tech industry is looking for a stable future, and we want to make that come true at Descartes Underwriting. We signed the FrenchTech commitment charter to contribute to gender parity in all our business endeavors throughout the whole world. Everyone is welcome to participate in this journey. We must follow through, as startups are often criticised for not doing much for these social issues.

We wanted to partner up with a grande école with which we want to collaborate on the long term, and to take part in a program which resonated with our corporate social responsibilities. Today, we are happy to sign this partnership with the ENS Paris-Saclay. We are committing to supporting the School’s equality of opportunity plan for 3 years.

Why choose the ENS Paris-Saclay’s mentorship program?

We are so happy to sign this partnership. We are ready to act to foster diversity, and to support actions already in place. The primary school mentorship program combines scientific mediation and support for students choosing to get involved in raising awareness of science among school children. Scientific mediation is part of our responsibilities, and I think it is a very mature choice on the part of the students to help young children discover research and higher education, to share their academic background, and to mentor primary school classes. They will also realize the importance of diversity. We need this understanding of the merits of diversity, we need to encourage the students’ commitment to social issues. We need people to care about these issues, and we are happy to help it come true with the ENS Paris-Saclay. As we say, to sign is to act! And we want to work with you on this.