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 Skye Theodorou Co-Founder & CEO and Anish Sinha Co-Founder & COO from upcover. Enjoy!
Tell us upcover’s brief pitch.
upcover bridges the protection gap for the fastest growing workforce in Australia by providing the self-employed and independent contractors of today with the insurance protection and benefits they need.
We’re doing this by building a tech platform that creates personalised insurance and portable benefits (sick leave, holiday, maternity leave) products that are flexibly and dynamically priced and simple and easy to use.
So how did upcover begin?
I’m pretty passionate about helping small businesses manage their risks and giving great service. Having a greek background, I’ve worked with my dad in so many different industries and helping him navigate his insurance and claims always left me feeling that there needs to be something that better suits people that work for themselves.
How has upcover evolved since its inception?
Our business evolved with my co-founder, Anish Sinha, joining the team, we reworked our prototype and the problem space by focussing on the micro-enterprises and independent workers that are becoming so common nowadays.
By focusing on the new phenomenon of the gig economy, we’re able to tackle a space where there are no tailored or holistic products – almost like a small biz pack – that is subscription and usage-based, we believe there’s a great opportunity there.
What is your team currently working on for 2020, or what have you accomplished recently?
At just under a year old, we’ve secured our insurance partnership with the incredible team at Agile Underwriting Services, as well as received the Gold award for the Efma Accenture Innovation in Insurance Awards, in the insurtech category.
We’re busy preparing for our product launch for a bite-sized insurance product for delivery workers in the coming weeks and already working on how we can expand out our products and offerings for other sectors in the gig economy.
How does upcover give back?
We love working with and building our products in a grassroots approach. We’re hiring from within the communities that work in the gig economy, to build out our Community Manager initiative, that helps us speak with, understand, and get a pulse check on how our product might be received.
You can take a look at the stories we share of these riders on our Instagram here.
What is upcover’s biggest challenge in today’s markets?
We believe upcover’s products provide us with a tailwind for the current markets, coming out of COVID-19. However, as with any insurtech, creating a sustainable product, and securing distribution to help us achieve scale is key.
We’re still very early on in our journey as a startup, and we’ve been navigating what is one of the most heavily regulated insurance ecosystems in the world. Thinking and solving for these challenges as a lean startup is a challenge, but one that we solve for day by day, and with the help of the incredible people within the insurance industry getting involved in upcover’s journey.
Anything else you’d like to say that we didn’t ask?
We would love to work with and connect with any other players that are looking to build products for the gig economy. If you’re interested in learning more about upcover and what we are getting up to, and where we are headed – please reach out!
