Insurtech UK keen to work with insurance industry

Insurtech UK is looking to work with others – namely the established insurance industry.

This was the message the alliance of start-ups and partners put forward in its breakfast briefing ‘Insurtech: the next global success story for the UK?’ last week in London. It added that the customer getting a better outcome with insurance was its number one focus.

The group, which this year it hopes to develop into a formal association with an initial five-year mandate, plans to discuss issues such as dual pricing and data use with government.

Niall Barton, Insurtech UK founding member and interim council member at Wrisk, said: “We are very keen to work with insurers and other associations, this is not a closed book, it’s a collaborative organism.”

The group currently has 44 members, six associates and 13 service partners – with two further sign-ups following the briefing. 

Insurtech UK was launched In November with 31 members signed up and a mission to promote the insurtech sector and its benefits.

But although the range of talent for insurtech is booming in the UK, the pool of investment overseas is far better.

Opportunity

Barton added: “With government support to create the best framework possible for insurtechs to operate under, and further investment to the sector, there is a valuable opportunity for UK insurtechs to take advantage of the huge possibilities in the UK insurance market and in other emerging markets across the world.

“We were really pleased by the turnout of our first Insurtech UK event. There is a real drive by our members and partners to use insurtech to improve the insurance industry and to make it more consumer friendly and focused.

“This event was a great first step in outlining what needs to be done for insurtech to become a global success story for the UK, and Insurtech UK will be working with our members and stakeholders to achieve this objective.”

Martyn Evans, consulting partner at Insurtech UK and director at Altus Consulting, said that insurtech is the future of the insurance industry as there is a “seismic change in the way that the consumer is engaging with insurers as well as their products, which have not changed for years”.

He said: “It’s really down to the disruptors like yourselves that are helping the consumer to engage with insurers in different ways.

“Over the last 10 years, about 40% of the insurtechs are selling more product, making acquisitions or bringing product to market. Whereas 60% are there to make what is around today faster and more efficient,” he said.

Altus started with a mission to make financial services faster so the consumer benefits.

Trust

In the first panel discussion, the issue of trust between consumer and insurer was debated, bearing in mind the role that insurtechs could play to overhaul existing negative perceptions.

Dylan Bourguignon, chief executive at So-Sure, claimed that his firm had redesigned the insurance value chain to be consumer centric, as well as making operational processes easier. He cited Insurtech UK member Laka as another example of the insurance model being rethought to make it more consumer-centric.

Gavin Sewell, chief executive and co-founder at Honcho, said his firm’s model, where insurers bid for custom, allows the consumer to be in control. But he said that there is more work to be done.

James York, founder at Worry+Peace, said there was an issue over consumers being charged a hidden fee when they changed insurance companies. This was an area where insurtechs could create trust.

“There is a problem about cost in the GWP sense that consumers don’t know about, they don’t even know how much money is being taken by the ‘new middle man’,” he said.

Justin Balcombe, partner at Oliver Wyman, added that this disruption is waking insurers up and challenging them to be better. He said that it has introduced mini digital segments of traditional insurance and bringing new players to the market.

Balcombe helped set up the Lloyd’s lab, and said that he has seen a huge take up in commercial insurance where smart technology is having an impact.