Insurtech Flamingo says the coronavirus crisis has heightened interest in its products as employees are forced to work from home.

Flamingo has bases in Sydney and the US working on cognitive virtual assistants, journey assist platforms and unsupervised machine-learning algorithms.

During the March quarter Flamingo signed a new software and service agreement with a top 20 US bank to deploy its Smart Hub product.

It has also been granted patents in both the US and Australia for its semi-supervised question-answering machine.

In an update to the Australian Stock Exchange, Flamingo says it “experienced accelerated sales traction for its technology and product following the COVID-19 pandemic and the need for large organisations to optimise information sharing in a remote working context”.

Flamingo says it remains “positive about its strategy, product and market potential”.

The firm’s business strategy has moved from building its core AI technology platform to more recently developing its Virtual Employee Assistant product and engaging with select global brands as beta customers.

It is licensing its virtual assistant software to HSBC Australia under a three-year deal, deploying an assistant called MAGGIE for the bank’s FAQs and knowledge retrieval.

Bryn Hardcastle was appointed in March, as a non-executive director, replacing CEO Olivier Cauderlier who will focus on driving the strategy and operations of the business.