Vincent Durnez, CTO and co-founder of Anorak Technologies, is a seasoned software engineer with years of experience in the insurance industry. During his time as CIO at French insurance giant AXA Direct, he realised that true innovation can only happen outside of big corporations. So he started Anorak, the smart data company building the world’s smartest insurance companion, together with CEO and co-founder David Vanek. Now, nine months after launching the service, Vincent is looking for the next generation of passionate technologists to help build Anorak’s vision.
How did you get into technology?
I’ve been a tech engineer all my life. I always worked in software companies, from small startups to big corporations. I really started to enjoy my job during the first internet bubble in the early 2000s. We tackled big challenges, we had a lot of freedom to build things, it was a very creative time and we had no money issues [laughs]. I was based in Paris at the time, and I had a lot of fun building software products in those days. I originally started out in telecommunications companies.
“Without knowing it at the time, we were already pioneering the insurtech sector.”
And then insurance. How did you get into that?
I got to experience the insurance industry because I joined a software company called Prima Solutions that worked with insurance companies. I was building software and supporting customers across Europe and Japan. Without knowing it at the time, we were already pioneering the insurtech sector.
Then, I worked as Chief Information Officer at Direct Assurance, which is a property and casualty direct insurance company owned by AXA. After that, I became Chief Architect at AXA Global Direct. During that time, I learned a lot about how insurers work, what their constraints are and how little they can actually innovate.
So is it possible to innovate in the insurance industry?
Insurance is ripe for disruption, but it’s very hard for big insurance companies to really innovate. There are two sides: you’ve got more money, but also more limitations and internal politics. You’re often limited if you want to build something really innovative because of legacy systems that are still in place. In my experience, you can only get to 10% of what you actually want to build. I’m not talking about some incremental changes, but about building something completely new in terms of service, product and technology. So I decided that the best way to innovate is to work outside of the industry.
“I decided that the best way to innovate is to work outside of the industry.”
You started Anorak with your co-founder David Vanek. What do you want to achieve with this new company?
Our goal is to give everyone access to tailored, regulated protection advice. At the moment, that’s only available to affluent people through financial advisers. We want to remove this distribution bottleneck — by building the world’s first-ever automated solution that delivers regulated life insurance advice. It’s a smart engine that can analyse a person’s need, project that into the future and create a product profile that fits the person’s unique circumstances. It then matches this profile in real-time with insurance products that are available on the market, based on a rating that reflects the person’s profile.
People will be able to use our service seamlessly in their everyday lives: the Anorak engine will be available through brokers, online banks, money apps, as well as e-commerce and gig economy platforms. We aim to offer a holistic, refined protection advice — by covering the entire spectrum from life insurance to income protection and, soon, critical illness protection.
Today, users can access Anorak through Starling, the mobile-only challenger bank, and Yolt, the app-based smart money manager — two prime examples of mobile banking services that connect people to life insurance.
What are your biggest challenges?
The biggest challenge is building something completely from the ground up. There’s no one doing it, so you have a blank sheet. It’s easy to copy someone, but it’s a lot harder to be creative, be iterative and to build something entirely new. The logic of our advice engine is built entirely from scratch. We cross-reference a lot of data, do risk and financial computations and match a person’s profile to products that are on the market today.
Another challenge is working with partners who aren’t using state-of-the-art technology. We’re using predictive data to offer users a great experience, even if our partners don’t provide the best performance. Being very user-centric is important in general, so we iterate a lot: tech, design, data science, insurance. All of us. The more you test and iterate, the more you understand your users.
“Everybody told us that it’s impossible to build a digital insurance adviser. Well, we did it.”
Everybody told us that it’s impossible to build a digital insurance adviser. Well, we did it. Then people told us that we can’t deliver regulated advice. Well, now we do. What we built so far convinces me that there is no reason why we won’t succeed.
What do you need to grow Anorak to its full potential?
Our next challenge is to double the tech team size. We need to scale. We’re hunting for open and creative people who are passionate about technology. It’s a very complex product and it’s difficult to master. We want everyone to be proactive and give your input — even if they’re just starting out.
This means that you can have a real impact here. If you work at Google, you can be a great developer, but you’re just one of 10,000 people. You’ll never have the same impact. Communication is also really important: we’re a diverse team with a lot of different skills, backgrounds and nationalities. Everyone brings a different perspective. I really appreciate that.
