Exclusive: Insurtech launches subscription-based pet insurance co-founded by former Apprentice star

Waggel announced today that it has launched a tailored app-based solution for pet owners. 

It allows quotes to be made in under 30 seconds; and claims in under 10 which is trackable in real-time via a smartphone.

And customers can choose their own amount of coverage and excess.

A portion of unclaimed premiums are donated to charities such as Dogs on the Street, Petsavers and Support Dogs – an initiative which US based insurtech Lemonade also upholds in its business.

Waggel claims to do-away with jargon-filled policies tailoring each one to the customer while also providing rewards from its pet food brand partners – Butternut Box, Scrumbles, Beco, Rockstar and Benyfit.

It follows Mintel’s research which found that 45% of pet owners do not take out cover for their animal signalling a general mistrust in insurers.

Meanwhile the ABI last year, cited that an estimated 67% of dogs and 84% of cats are still uninsured leaving approximately 12.4 million cat and dog owners at risk of having to foot the bill themselves.

Redesign 

Andrew Leal, its chief executive and founder and Ross Fretten, its co-founder – the latter being a contestant on last year’s BBC show ”The Apprentice,” teamed up to offer a more transparent type of insurance for pets with rewards for policyholders.

Leal said that Fretten and himself decided to turn pet insurance on its head and redesign it.

He told Insurance Times: “I had this inclination that something was a muck in pet insurance, and wondered what was going on?

“Our take was to treat the product like a subscription and looked into what we could give someone for that monthly fee.

“Waggel is your personalised wellbeing companion, we don’t want to be stuffed in the drawer like some policies that only come out as and when you need it, we want to sit alongside the policyholders for the entire journey and help owners look after their pets,” Leal added. 

The premise behind the business was to make insurance more pet orientated, user friendly and less complicated.

One of the problems with pet insurance he said: “In this industry it’s almost impossible to switch, once your pet has a pre-existing condition if you go to another insurer it will always be listed as an exclusion.”

This is also something that Ed Shropshire, managing director at Aquarium Software also aluded to recently. 

Kibble

Fretten has a background in product and tech, he met Leal while working on his own pet health and training platform Kibble, which he began on The Apprentice.

He said: “The beauty of Waggel, is that it’s not typical insurance, it’s a digital membership platform that puts the customer experience first and foremost.

“Accordingly, we run Waggel more like a tech company rather than an insurance company.”

The firm believes that currently “pet insurance is a market ripe for disruption.”

Fretten explained: “The market-as-it-is represents an antiquated behemoth that gambles on the misfortunes of its customers and their pets, so naturally there is an antagonistic and hostile relationship between insurer and customer, hence why a lot of customers consider insurance a grudge purchase.

“I have significant experience in pet tech, having worked with brands such as Purina and Bakers before spending two years on my own pet tech start-up [called] Kibble.”

When asked about its competitors, he said: “All of the usual suspects – Pet Plan, Animal Friends, Tesco as well as the self-insured.”

The insurtech believes its quote and claims processes are the fastest in the entire industry and its product offers complete transparency to customers.

Last week Aviva also launched a new subscription-based insurance product in a bid to address price disparity across home and motor.

Waggel is a London-based insurtech, its name is a combination of the ”wag” of a dog’s tail and the ”wiggle” of how a cat walks.

The Red Sands backed pet insurer is on a mission to become a “complete well-being companion” with intentions to offer nutritional guidance, activity tracking through wearables and a community chat function via the app.