The Inspire Insurtech Interview’ series is designed to inspire fellow insurtechs. We want to share who they are, what they do, and what we can expect from them in the future.
This month we are talking to Daniel Fogarty, Founder and CEO of Evari. Enjoy!
Tell us Evari’s brief pitch.
Evari enables insurers and underwriting agencies to make insurance easy to buy, easy to manage and flexible to changing needs. Ease and flexibility are critical for customers, distributors and insurers.
Evari’s enterprise SaaS platform is the full end to end insurance process in the cloud, enabling ease of data integration, and empowers insurance businesses to build, launch and distribute insurance products with digital features that users love.
So how did Evari begin?
Evari was founded in 2016 by Robert, Brack and Daniel. Previously, Daniel was CEO of Zurich General Insurance for Australia and New Zealand, Robert was General Manager Risk in Banking, and Brack is a Tech Entrepreneur. The three share a passion to change the way insurance is managed and delivered to customers.
Evari commenced as an underwriting agency, and Lloyd’s coverholder (Evari.Insure) selling insurance directly to small businesses in Australia. Our first experimental offering launched in late 2017, integrated with customer’s cloud accounting software to facilitate easy insurance updates, but the selected target market wasn’t fully ready for this offering at the time.
Evari.Insure’s trades and professionals insurance was launched in early 2018 with much broader appeal. It provided ease and flexibility, enabling customers to save money with our world-first pause feature for the liability section. This broader appeal expanded through referral arrangements with Australian trusted brands such as Bunnings and RAC.
In 2019 Evari.Insure won Finders’ best insurance innovation category and was a finalist for Best Online Customer Service, and the business has a 4.4-star TrustPilot ranking.
How has Evari evolved since its inception?
The initial launch of our direct insurance offering in Australia generated a lot of interest in Evari’s technology from within the insurance industry.
So in 2018, we started planning to offer Evari as a SaaS solution. We decided that to be a SaaS provider to the Insurance world, and we needed to have a presence beyond our initial base in Perth. So in late 2018, we opened our London office; and through our London presence, we were successful in winning our first SaaS customer, based in the USA, who launched in 2019.
Since then, our SaaS business (Evari.Tech) has continued to grow, and we have significantly enhanced our technology.
Evari’s platform’s capabilities include easy data integrations, pricing, underwriting, policy issuance, management, payments and distribution management via any channel (direct online, broker intermediated or using API’s to integrate with third-party web services).
Evari.Tech was named in the DIA’s Top 100 Insurtechs to watch in 2021 and the 2020 Insurtech100 list of 100 of the world’s most innovative InsurTech companies selected by a panel of industry experts and analysts.
What is your team currently working on for 2021, or what have you accomplished recently?
In early July 2021, Envest acquired Evari’s underwriting portfolio. This is a win-win for both organisations, as we know that the insurance business we created is in good hands, and we have a further client for our SaaS platform.
This divestment enables us to focus solely on our SaaS business.
Now our focus is working with our SaaS customers on delivering their new products and growing our sales and delivery pipeline to work with more insurance businesses globally.
How does Evari give back?
Evari gives back to the community in a number of ways:
- Early-stage companies create jobs. I enjoy hearing stories of our team and their families, and am proud as founders that we created these jobs, which in turn boosts the communities we live and work in;
- We created our business as we are passionate about making positive changes to the life of insureds and the insurance industry;
- We give back as individuals, supporting our own selected causes and collectively supporting each other’s causes. For me personally whilst I have been at Evari, I support Time & Space (https://www.time-space.com.au/ currently Chair of their Advisory Committee); See Beyond Borders (https://www.seebeyondborders.org/ previously a member of their Advisory Committee), and I am an active Surf Life Saver;
- We give back to the communities we work in through our own time and some of that on company time; for me, I assist our industry now on the Board of Insurtech Australia and previously on the Board of ANZIIF.
And over time, we plan to do more.
What is Evari’s biggest challenge in today’s market?
Evari’s and Insurtech growth is constrained by the slower speed of change in the insurance industry versus other industries. We see the more ambitious and entrepreneurial insurers and underwriting agencies adopting digital more aggressively, and these businesses will be the ones who win over time.
Anything else you’d like to say that we didn’t ask?
I would like to share some learnings as an Insurtech start-up founder:
- Be passionate about what you are doing, as there will be challenges ahead, and your passion will guide your energies;
- Cash is oxygen for your business; manage your cash well;
- Develop strong mutually beneficial relationships. Nothing is achieved alone, and it is all about working with others;
- Whilst a great product is a strong start; it is customers that make your business successful;
- Manage your compliance obligations from the start;
- Celebrate your successes and be grateful to those who helped you along the way;
- Be open and flexible to the opportunities that come your way, as the path to success will have many twists and turns;
- Go for it;
- And as you achieve success, pay it forward and help the next generation, just as others have helped you.
Thank You.
