“We worked very well together on what we think is a very exciting opportunity for the broker market to take advantage of.”
Those were the words of David Fogarty (pictured above) when Insurance Business spoke with the managing director about Point Insurance’s collaboration with insurtech start-up Blue Zebra Insurance (BZI). Both backed by equity investment business Envest, the underwriting agencies recently teamed up to leverage their complementary skillsets in bringing personal accident and sickness insurance brand Blue Point to market.
For BZI, the partnership forms part of the company’s ongoing product suite expansion, while Point is tapping into the network of insurance brokers using the Zebra Lounge platform.
“It’s interesting to see that since we’ve launched and formed a relationship with Point, the number of individual brokers using our system has gone up by over 100 (to about 950) per day,” BZI managing director Colin Fagen (pictured below) told Insurance Business. “So there are obviously a lot of brokers interested in looking at the new product range and how that can tie into their customer base.”
According to Fagen, they see the combination of Point’s deep expertise in personal accident and sickness and BZI’s modern and adaptable systems as a “very strong” sales proposition in the market – something that, in their view, isn’t being provided by anyone else. Add to that their respective market relationships that will benefit the brand in terms of reach.
Fogarty noted: “From Point’s perspective, the big attraction to join this brand and joint venture was accessing a bigger distribution that Blue Zebra currently has. So Blue Point’s priority will be to promote and access both distributions and grow the book of business and the people accessing not just Blue Point but the Blue Zebra platform.”
Currently, the Zebra Lounge is used by around 350 broking organisations for coverage including home and motor insurance. With BZI now offering personal accident and sickness, via Blue Point, and also looking to further expand its product line to eventually include SME, commercial motor, and cyber, the opportunity for cross-selling is immense.
The tie-up will allow both firms to “feed off each other,” said Fagen. “I think the way we’ve worked together to collaborate to build this offering is a very repeatable model,” added the MD, who highlighted the possibility of partnering with other agencies over time.
For Fogarty, who leads Blue Point, the process of bringing the new brand to life has been a “very easy” one. He believes both camps have cooperated, for the benefit of everyone involved, as common aligned organisations.
“We’ve seen really strong growth as a business, as has Blue Zebra, during this time and we think post-COVID we’ll both be in a very good position, as businesses go back to normal to take advantage of the products we have in the market,” he asserted. “We’ll be there for the brokers who will be looking to grow.”
