The product was built in ten weeks
Insurtech Kasko has partnered with the Co-op Insurance to offer a flexible insurance product to UK-based students that are renting.
The product allows student renters to cover specific items such as mobile phones, laptops and bikes against accidental damage, loss or theft in the UK.
The product is currently in its ’beta’ phase after being built from scratch in ten weeks, traditionally new products can take up to two-three years from boardroom to launch date.
The news follows a previous report by Direct Line which revealed that £2m worth of laptops have been stolen from students, with mobiles coming second.
Digital first
The policy allows students to add or remove items to suit their circumstance and financial position at a certain time. It can be managed online via a Co-op-branded digital portal that is hosted by Kasko and in keeping with the ’digital first’ mentality of modern users. Cover can be paid on a monthly or academic term basis with no additional fees or charges.
Caroline Hunter, head of home insurance at Co-op said: “Students represent the next generation of digital-first members of the workforce, their importance is huge, yet financial services has largely ignored their needs. That is not in keeping with our ethos at the Co-op of improving the lives of all, so working with Kasko, it quickly became apparent that we could address this.
“This has been our first project working with the team at Kasko and it has been an eye-opener to see what is possible when we can bring our experience together with the flexible, lightning-fast operations of startups like Nick and Matt’s. We hope to be able to work with them again in the future to better serve our customers, both new and old.”
She added that the Co-op were keen to see how flexible Kasko’s processes were, as the it shares a similar value in terms of offering products and services across a wide demographic.
Memories
Nikolaus Sühr, Kasko’s co-founder and chief executive said he met Kasko’s co-founder Matt Wardle and at university. “I actually signed up to the wrong halls, without it we would definitely not be here, so building something like this that we would have appreciated ourselves not all that long ago, does feel good.
“It has been great working with the team from the Co-op, there is an ethos in the company that we admire at Kasko and it has been established across multiple industries in the UK for longer than almost anyone.
“It is great to see that even the most established firms, in traditional industries like insurance, are looking at startups like ours and exploring opportunities for collaboration,” he explained.
Matt Wardle, who is also chief technology officer added: “I think we have learned plenty and hopefully taught them [Co-op] a few things as well. We look forward to working with the Co-op again in the future.”
Kasko was founded in 2015 and works with over 15 insurance partners including Zurich, Baloise, and Allianz.
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