Rebranded Insure A Thing teams up with Zurich

Insure a Thing, which has undergone a long-awaited rebrand and is now known as Laka, has launched a new bike insurance product, backed by Zurich.

Laka claims to only earn fees when acting in the best interests of the consumer – namely when settling claims. No upfront payments or premiums are paid by a consumer. Instead, at the end of each month claims are settled as part of a group risk pool (a bike club for example), plus a fee.

The payment will change each month but will be capped at the price of a traditional insurance policy. Therefore, if claims performance is better than expected in one month everyone will share in that improvement.

Zurich says that this approach means “consumers are nudged towards behaving in such a way as to reduce the number of claims, which are simply reported on a smartphone and paid with no excess.”

Co-founder of Laka, Jens Hartwig comments: “While this tried and tested insurance model obviously works, we think there’s an alternative way which can benefit careful consumers – a way which shares with them the pricing and claims decision-making. We’re starting with high-value bike cover but as our model proves successful we look to explore other products in the pipeline.”

David White, head of retail management at Zurich concludes: “Innovation is an often-over-used word but Laka is one of the very few insurtechs doing something genuinely exciting and disruptive. We look forward to working with Laka in the future as they expand their proposition further.”

Under its old name of Insure A Thing, Laka was part of the 2016 Startupbootcamp insurtech cohort.