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 Renee Cosgrave, General Manager of Stella Insurance. Enjoy!
Tell us Stella Insurance’s brief pitch.
Stella is a female-first, purpose-driven business, created by women, for women. Stella is building a community to educate, support and empower females to balance the gender bias in matters such as insurance – and life at large.
Starting with Car Insurance, Stella designs products and customer experiences that prioritise the needs and lifestyles of women. Ultimately though, our purpose is much bigger than changing the insurance game. Our plan is to change the game, full stop.
So how did Stella Insurance begin?
It’s long been a frustration of our founder – Sam White that in the UK she was not able to appropriately reward women for their better driving abilities (due to the EU directive on gender discrimination in insurance), so the opportunity to launch a female-centric Insurtech in Australia has been the realisation of a long-term passion. Sam partnered with Envest and Are Media to bring Stella to life.
I was bought on by Sam and the team in the early days of Stella’s inception to create the proposition and launch Stella to market. The brand and offering were built in collaboration with our female customers to (hopefully) give them a much more intuitive and rewarding experience when it comes to car insurance.
How has Stella Insurance evolved since its inception?
Since launching in July 2020, the key evolutions the team have focused on have been driven by our customer’s feedback. We have spent time understanding who our customer is, what their needs are and how we can best tailor our experience to suit them.
This has already driven changes across aspects such as branding, messaging, product, and user experience. We have some exciting changes that will start to roll out over the next 3 months.
What is your team currently working on for 2020, or what have you accomplished recently?
2021 is a big year for Stella, and we’re in Phase 2 build of our platform with our tech partner Aventus as our first book of renewals are fast approaching. We are also working on a bunch of new and exciting campaigns, plus a new product launch in the second half of this year.
How does Stella Insurance give back?
Stella exists to be a purpose-driven business with a vision to change the game for women beyond the insurance. We’re conscious of the wider, unique challenges for women. So we’re partnering with organisations that are ensuring women get the educational assistance they need along with actionable change they seek.
Stella has formed a long-term partnership with the Women’s and Girls Emergency Centre (WAGEC). Stella and WAGEC aim to empower individuals and communities to end gender-based violence in a generation. Our partnership will focus on supporting women through donation drives and volunteering, amplifying their voices through education, knowledge, and awareness to take action, and finally to empower women through mentorship and primary prevention initiatives.
In addition, Stella has a long-term goal to support 10 female-founded start-ups by 2025 through our Stella Squad program, which we’ve committed a portion of our profits to fund this program. We believe that a world with more female-led businesses will empower women for generations to come. I’m personally excited to see the program evolve this year as we build out the Stella Squad community and engage with like-minded female entrepreneurs.
What is Stella Insurance’s biggest challenge in today’s market?
With the space being dominated by two major insurers, ’ getting a share of voice and building trust and credibility as a challenger brand is a key focus for the team at Stella. However, we feel our purpose and proposition lends itself incredibly well to cutting through a very traditional market to connect with our female audience.
Thank You.
