API As Distribution Channel
How Bungalow is Changing the Way Consumers Buy Renters Insurance
Buying renters insurance is way more complicated than it should be. You have to get quotes from multiple insurance companies, pore over detailed contracts, prepare lots of personal information about your residence, and then use a poorly-designed web app to make your payments. This is part of the reason that only 40% of renters have renters insurance (compare that to the 95% of home owners who have home owners insurance).
It’s been too difficult to buy renters insurance for too long. In fact, renters have demanded a better and easier way to buy insurance for years. Until today, no established insurance companies or startups answered these renters’ calls for a better insurance buying process. With today’s launch of Bungalow, that has changed.
Philadelphia-based Bungalow is the simplest way to buy renters insurance. To purchase renters insurance through Bungalow, all you have to do is enter your zip code. Then, Bungalow gives you an awesome renters insurance policy with clear terms and no hidden fees. After that, you buy your policy and move on with your life. Thanks to Bungalow, finding and buying the best renters insurance is now a 2-minute, headache-free process instead of a 2-hour, problem-filled process.
Thomas Austin and Zachary Stiefler cofounded Bungalow in 2014 while attending the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. While shopping for renters insurance online, the two were bombarded by calls from agents and struggling to choose a policy. They also knew others shared that experience and believed it could be better. — Forbes
*Full disclosure: Bungalow was part of Dreamit’s Spring 2015 Cohort.
API as Distribution Channel
Bungalow uses an API to integrate their renters insurance engine into any number of websites and platforms (think property management, online rent payment, tenant screening and personal finance websites). Since these stakeholders already have some of the relevant information, consumers will simply have to fill in the rest of the information with only a few questions. The API will cast a much “larger and cheaper net for policyholders than marketing directly to consumers, which would likely be dependent on advertising and other methods.”
More and more startups are using API’s as their primary distribution channel. Most startups that use API’s as their main marketing strategy are B2B2C. This means startups sell their products to other businesses, who then distribute the product to consumers. For many B2B2C startups, creating an API that other businesses can integrate into their own product is a great way to reach consumers. Here are just a few of the startups using API’s for distribution:
Affirm allows consumers to buy things online and pay off their purchases in easy, fixed monthly payments. Online businesses integrate the Affirm API into their products, and consumers then have the option to pay with Affirm during checkout. Consumers are Affirm’s end customer, and Affirm needs ecommerce businesses to use their API to reach consumers at scale. With the Affirm API, ecommerce sites have more revenue and Affirm has the ability to make tons of loans to consumers.
StayWanderful helps hotels and bed and breakfasts drive direct bookings on their websites. Hotel websites and the services/products that power websites for hotels integrate the StayWanderful API into their checkout process. By doing this, hotels increase their number of direct bookings and StayWanderful gets access to consumers, who are their end customers.
Octane Lending provides fast and easy powersports lending to dealers of sport bikes, cruisers, ATVs, snowmobiles, and more for free. Consumers who purchase powersports products are Octane Lending’s primary customer. To reach consumers, Octane Lending partners with powersports dealers to integrate their loan API and interface into dealers’ sales processes. The dealers who use Octane Lending sell more product and Octane Lending scales up its loan-lending engine faster and easier.
Some more info about Bungalow
You can currently buy renters insurance through Bungalow if you live in New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, California, Texas, Illinois, or Washington DC. If you don’t live in one of those states, hold tight! The Bungalow team is working hard to expand its product to all 50 states so you have an easier time buying renters insurance too.
If you want to simplify your life and spend more time doing the things you love, buy your renters insurance with Bungalow today.
