The Inspire Insurtech Interview’ series are interviews to inspire your fellow insurtechs. We’d like to share who you are, what you do, what we can expect from you in the future. This month we are talking we talk to Veronica Hey from Ok Away. Enjoy!

Tell us Ok Away’s brief pitch
Ok Away allows family and friends to connect while travelling via mapped location sharing, itinerary updates, information sharing and travel alerts. The data that Ok Away collects provides a rich picture of travel-related behaviours and risks.

So how did Ok Away begin?
After studying Tourism and traveling extensively, I saw increasing incidents impacting travellers overseas and I thought ‘there must be a better way?’.

For nearly eight years, I have been looking into ways that technology could connect the travel community, communicate safety issues and even search for missing travellers.

That was the start of the Missing Pages initiative, amongst the first global initiatives to assist the families of missing travelers with the painful and confusing process of locating loved ones.

Now comes Ok Away.

How has Ok Away evolved since inception?
When I started developing the idea, GPS and geo-mapping technology was in its infancy. Now we can put the power in the hands of travellers through their smartphones. We’ve also extensively researched our audiences. We know what travelers want and we have been ruthless in cutting out anything that does not add value.

With the development of mapping technology, we now have the means to know where our friends and family are, view their travel history and plans, what is going on in their vicinity and be notified if they fail to arrive at a destination.

What is your team currently working on? Any accomplishments you’d like to tell us about?
We are in launch mode, so we’re flat out with continued testing and slowly introducing Ok Away to the market, however we are really proud of a few firsts.

Our Itinerary feature allows travellers to post their itinerary for a day trip or long trip abroad. Family and friends will be instantly notified when a new itinerary is created and they can view the upcoming trip, travel insurance information and other details. Followers will receive alerts when the traveller arrives and departs each location or if they are late to arrive.

Given the current situation with Covid-19 and the decision of the Australian Government to discontinue the ‘Smart traveler’ App, we also decided to link to official Australian Smart Traveller warnings. We are also looking to link to the U.K Government Travel warnings. We can add other Countries as we see demand.

How does Ok Away give back?
During the last 8 years we’ve conducted over 30 online location targeted ad campaigns for missing travellers at no cost to families via our Missing Pages initiative. We follow up on any credible leads provided and pass this information onto relevant authorities as well as encouraging missing person poster distribution with locals.

Families can now post missing loved ones through the Community section of the App and members nearby will receive a notification.

What is Ok Away’s biggest challenge in today’s markets?
The global response to COVID-19, has hit travel hard.

We believe when the global community returns cautiously to travel we can offer a little peace of mind and play our role in creating a safer and better connected world.

Now more than ever travellers are acutely aware of the importance of travel insurance and being across what is included in their policy.

Anything else that you would like to say that we haven’t asked?
The Ok Away app is available free on both iOS and Android. Ok Away also sells a collection of travel safety products, with a percent of proceeds going towards supporting our Missing Pages Initiative and the Ok Away app.

This month’s newsletter was just delivered.

Click here to read it.

Make sure you subscribe to have the next one delivered straight to your inbox.

This month’s newsletter was just delivered.

Click here to read it.

Make sure you subscribe to have the next one delivered straight to your inbox.

The Inspire Insurtech Interview’ series are interviews to inspire your fellow insurtechs. We’d like to share who you are, what you do, what we can expect from you in the future. This month we are talking we talk to Mariyam Naby from Cover Hero

Tell us Cover Hero’s brief pitch
We are building the next generation on fintech that creates holistic wellbeing for across the areas of physical, mental and financial wellbeing. We design human behaviour and cognitive science-led products that protect the things that matter to humans. Hustlecover, which protects the income of gig workers, is one example of that.

So how did Cover Hero begin?
In short, it started after a traumatic insurance experience. I thought I had cover for a significant trip that my partner and I had booked, however, our claim was rejected after a cancer diagnosis forced us to abandon the trip. I was devastated and left in a vulnerable situation which impacted my health, my work, and my income. It also affected my relationship.

I thought “this cannot be how insurance works!” and so I started reviewing policies. This led me to pick through 15 different insurance products which entailed the detailed reading of about 60 pages per product. The products were basically the same and it was very hard to understand what was covered and what wasn’t. It made me feel very angry and powerless.

So… I applied for and was accepted into, the Qantas Avro Accelerator to develop a robo-advice platform for brokers, The platform was to help brokers recommend insurance products personalised to their clients’ needs. After a year working on the concept it became apparent that it didn’t allow me to build the solution I wanted. So scrapped it! I realised that insurance products were not designed for our generation. I set out to design products relevant and valuable to today’s generation. I decided to build products for Millennials and Gen Zers, powered by great tech!

How has Cover Hero evolved since inception?
Since inception, it has been tough! I spent 2018 boot strapping the company, which included employing a couple of staff. I travelled throughout Europe and the US to meet with founders, insurance companies exec’s and fintech Venture Capitalists. I met with anyone who could provide me with data or a better understanding of the problems, and possible solutions, faced by the insurance market. I spoke to companies like Wefox, Coya, Get Safe and top tier carriers, reinsurers and insurance brokers. I have an academic background, and I applied my extensive experience and research skills to garner any piece of information that I can find. I spent over 1000 hours and held over 2000 conversations canvassing the market during that year.

I mapped all the insurance products in the global market and categorised them by their vertical, solution, funding, markets etc. Then, as any PhD student would do, I did an in-depth literature review. I collected millions of data points during which helped build the conceptual framework upon which the Coverhero strategy would be built.

In 2019 Coverhero started afresh with a bigger, bolder vision. We built our platform, Cloudcover, which is an end-to-end product that can manage all functionalities across the value chain. Cloudcover houses the great tech that powers our insurance products! Cloudcover brings together traditional insurance product design and granular behavioural data. It triangulates these with theoretical frameworks on human behaviour. It is a very nerdy project from the back end, which punches out a very sexy product at the front end.

Next, we engaged with our target market to demonstrate where their current needs were not being met. We developed a tool called the Balance Wheel to help people understand and assess how they are doing in their life and to help improve on the areas that are not working for them. It really resonated with their values, lifestyle and aspirations and just like that, a community of gig workers and side hustlers was built around our first brand – Hustlecover.

What is your team currently working on in 2020 or what have you accomplished recently?
This year we are focusing on our community, empowering the gig workforce and more product build.

How does Cover Hero give back’?
We run free wellbeing workshops, using the Balance Wheel, for the self-employed generation. We have run this with over 400 people already and will amplify that this year.

What is Cover Hero‘s biggest challenge in today’s markets?
There is no one big challange. There are many. Like being a small team, having limited human and financial resources and having to move fast, build product, raise capital and grow. We have to do all this, and still meet the strict governance requirements imposed on us by the regulators (note the plural).

Everyone on our team wears a number of hats at any given time. The challenge lies in balancing and prioritising our efforts to achieve the optimum output for our stakeholders.

Anything else you’d like to say that we didn’t ask?
We love the feedback and support for what we are doing that we are getting from our community. This has been overwhelming!!! I am very grateful for it.

This month’s newsletter was just delivered.

Click here to read it.

Make sure you subscribe to have the next one delivered straight to your inbox.

The Inspire Insurtech Interview’ series are interviews to inspire your fellow insurtechs. We’d like to share who you are, what you do, what we can expect from you in the future. This month we are talking we talk to Gilberto from ClaimSpace. Enjoy!

Tell us ClaimSpace’s brief pitch
ClaimSpace is a communication and collaboration platform helping financial service providers to streamline and improve complex dispute resolution processes. The web-based engagement tool creates simple and transparent experiences for consumers while generating cost efficiencies, new data and insights for enterprises.

So how did ClaimSpace begin?
My Co-Founder & Head of Product Gilberto Spencer was a medical and disability claims manager. He has used many tools and solutions for claims management but found that he still struggled to engage digitally with claimants and other stakeholders throughout complex claims such as disability, critical illness and trauma. Customers just want to know where their claim is at and what they can do to contribute to it’s resolution. So he and our CTO Alfonso Marquez built the first version of the ClaimSpace and we have grown from there.

How has ClaimSpace evolved since inception?
When we began we thought that this would be a solution just for insurers and more specifically for recurring claims processes like disability and income protection. Since then we have learned that actually there are many areas of insurance and financial services that still struggle to collaborate digitally with customers and external stakeholders. We are now focused on helping insurers and banks on dispute resolution whether that is a claim, complaint and in some cases, complex applications.

What is your team currently working on 2019 or what have you accomplished recently?
We spent most of this year in the US taking part in a few insurtech programs like Plug & Play and the Hartford Insurtech Hub. We have learned a tremendous amount about our current and future value proposition and in the process have been able to work with clients from around the world. As a result we have become a remote first team with people in different countries. Soon we will close our seed round and will kick off some new pilots here in Australia and overseas in the next few months. The next 12 months will also see us focus heavily on how we can harness all the data we are collecting to deliver better operational improvements to our clients and their customers.

How does ClaimSpace ‘give back’?
As a team, we believe strongly that insurance customers should be given as transparent a claims experience as possible, especially in those incredibly difficult moments when making a life, disability or critical illness claim. The changing Australian regulatory landscape means that now is the time to really make some change and our way of giving back to help enable insurers to deliver on the promise they make at point of sale.

What is ClaimSpace’s biggest challenge in today’s markets?
As with any early-stage startup, our biggest challenge is getting our product to a place that it can truly scale. Although we already have customers around the world across life and property insurance, to truly scale you must continuously improve your product with feedback from real customers. Keeping on top of this is our number one priority and number one challenge.

The Insurtech Australia AGM will be held at 3.30pm AEDT on Tuesday, 18th February 2020 at Stone & Chalk Boardroom, Level 4, York St, Sydney.
Forms are now available for Nomination as Director and Consent to Act (click here) and Proxy Form to nominate a representative to attend and vote directly on your behalf (click here).

The Inspire Insurtech Interview’ series are interviews to inspire your fellow insurtechs. We’d like to share who you are, what you do, what we can expect from you in the future. This month we are talking we talk to Jordan from Integrity Life. Enjoy!

Tell us Integrity Life’s brief pitch
We’re here to improve life insurance in Australia through disruptive technology, a laser focus on customers and their needs, and a culture that empowers people to change the game for good! Whether through innovative ‘first-to-market’ products or our co-created agile technology platform, we’re recreating life insurance, as it’s meant to be.

So how did Integrity Life begin?
Like most start-ups. With no systems, capital, business, license, staff, or plan. Just a really clear vision for what we wanted to achieve and why.

How has Integrity Life evolved since inception?
We now have more than 80 staff across the country, a full license to operate as an insurer, major international investors, an award-winning Adviser platform (and multiple awards for design innovation), and the whole industry buzzing. We were just recently named one of LinkedIn’s Top Startups for 2019.

What is your team currently working on 2019 or what have you accomplished recently?
Most recently we’re thrilled to launch Five+. This one is BIG. It’s an only-one-of-its-kind in market insurance package for small to medium businesses to allow them to offer a perk that is usually reserved for large companies – that is, a life insurance policy and salary continuance. It allows small business (like we were!) the type of business-continuity that is normally reserved for the big guys. We thought it was time someone supported businesses with as few as 5 employees.

How does Integrity Life ‘give back’?
We set out to make life insurance better in Australia, and a huge part of what we mean by that is being there for people when they need it most, and we’re starting with our own people. Aside from providing the perks you would expect (ping-pong tables, heaps of team events) we are looking at ways to support our people so they can support the people in their lives. We’ve invested in training 12 staff as ‘Mental Health First Aid Officers’ and have a program to support mental health at work and in life. Coming soon, we will be expanding this to include sponsorships that support people in living life to the fullest. Watch this space!

What is Integrity Life‘s biggest challenge in today’s markets?
Being an innovator and disrupting an industry with highly complex products.

Anything else you’d like to say that we didn’t ask?
Thank you for chatting with us and taking an interest in Integrity!

This month’s newsletter was just delivered.

Click here to read it.

Make sure you subscribe to have the next one delivered straight to your inbox.

The Inspire Insurtech Interview’ series are interviews to inspire your fellow insurtechs. We’d like to share who you are, what you do, what we can expect from you in the future. This month we are talking to Paul Brandis from DevCon Technologies – devcon.tech

Tell us DevCon Technologies’s brief pitch
DevCon has developed a claims management platform called Prime Ecosystem. Through the Prime Ecosystem platform, we are connecting Insurers with their Supply Chain with a simple, powerful and customisable platform; reducing claim lifecycles and costs, whilst bettering the customer experience.

So how DevCon Technologies begin?
We saw a major gap in the market initially for the Insurer’s Supply Chain, where Insurance Repairers/Builders were trying to use commercial construction platforms to manage the intricacies of the Claims Process but these platforms were falling short on a number of areas. One of the key areas is that the Insurance assessment/repair process is generally not linear and the software needs to be able to handle that, plus having the different contractual requirements from the different Insurers/Adjusters tracked and reported on.

How has DevCon Technologies evolved since inception?
From initially starting as targeting the Insurance Supply Chain, DevCon has now also developed a platform for the Insurers directly, to improve and streamline their Repair and Supplychain Management processes. The key differentiator of this product (Prime Assess) is that it has a digital connection to the Insurance Repairers already leveraging our Prime Build product, which provides increases efficiency in the assessing, quoting and reinstatement of building and contents claims.

What is your team currently working on? Any accomplishments you’d like to tell us about?
Our newest product we have been developing is Prime Restore, which is targeted towards the Restoration supplychain of the Insurers and Adjusters. This will encompass both the job/workflow management as well as key requirements around asset/inventory management and moisture mapping and reporting.

How does DevCon Technologies give back’?
We give back to the Insurance community by providing a level of support above and beyond for our client panel, especially smaller repairers and restorers who are trying to make a difference in their region of service. We strongly believe that the industry needs a more regional approach to the supply chain to deliver a better customer service to the Insured.

What is DevCon Technologies’s biggest challenge in today’s markets?
One of our biggest challenges is getting the incumbents to be open to partnering or even integrating with a smaller startup/scaleup in the Insurtech space. Through APIs and a collaborative approach, we believe that the savings in costs and timeframes would be substantial, but without the focus from the Insurers and Adjusters, we aren’t able to provide the support to our clients to then deliver a more proactive resolution and reinstatement of the affected property.