Insurtech may be the “in thing” in the financial sector, but one company was well ahead of the trend.
Bought by Many actually launched back in 2012 with the idea that people who have niche interests would be able to get together in order to earn discounts on insurance they bought from established players in the market – a group buying model not dissimilar to that of Groupon. The model proved popular, with everyone from exotic pet owners to enthusiasts of model railways getting together to bring their insurance costs down – so much so that the company currently boasts more than 250,000 customers.
However, now the firm is about to shake up its business model.
According to a
Financial Times interview, the company’s chief executive Steven Mendel believes there are many niches that several major insurers are not touching – and his business is ready to capitalise on that by starting to offer insurance itself, with a little help from a rather large friend – it will be backed by German reinsurance giant
Munich Re.
“We can’t get the insurers to the table on some of these things,” said Mendel in an interview with the publication. “Their systems capability does not allow them to develop and launch products at speed, and they want to address large markets.
“We can focus on niches that would have to be 10 or 100 times bigger to interest a bigger insurer.”
As a result, it will offer its own products via the web and apps with Mendel insisting there will be no conflict of interest in that his company will “only do this in areas of the market where existing insurers will not provide a product”.
Among the markets touted is one offering travel insurance to cancer patients in remission who want to travel. More will follow, especially after a £7.5 million funding boost from Munich Re and Octopus Ventures that has been newly secured.
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