Let’s unpack Indie’s relationship with Sanlam

They’re an incredible venture capitalist without being one.

Indie is all about openness, honesty and transparency. And since we’ve tentatively opened our doors, the question has been coming from both prospective clients, and some of our own people, about how we co-exist with Sanlam.

It’s a valid question. There are numerous examples where big corporates put a new coat of digital paint on an existing non-digital process and throw some fresh branding around — all in the hopes of attracting a younger audience of digital natives. Unfortunately for them, it’s always all too easy to scratch at the surface and reveal the beast below.

The best way to describe our relationship, is that Sanlam is the venture capital firm behind Indie. While the Sanlam you know is a very successful business in its own right, we are not inside that business. This means that we sit separately from Sanlam, and are forging our own destiny. There will be times when we compete with Sanlam itself for the same market, and that’s cool. It also makes the relationship complicated, so let me break it down further.

All the money we’ve spent building Indie comes from Sanlam. As I said, they are playing the role of a typical venture capitalist to the start-up called Indie.

We are directly accountable to the CEO of Sanlam Personal Finance (which is essentially Sanlam’s South African retail business). This means we have support and air cover from the Sanlam Group to do what we need to do.

We use their relevant licenses and balance sheet

Any insurance business we write is written on their life license. In addition, all the liabilities we create sit on the Sanlam Life balance sheet.

This means that the life insurance contract you may enter into is between you and Sanlam Life. For the client out there, that technically means Sanlam will be paying your claims, but you’ll be dealing exclusively with Indie.

That’s a great thing for our clients, because you can be comforted by the fact that a very large, well-capitalised business is there to pay any claims that come.

This also means you can be comforted by the knowledge that the policy you’ve bought will be honoured for as long as you need it.

They are there to support us

Sanlam have made available their extensive resources and industry knowledge to help us where we need it.

Their legal experts have helped make sure our contracts and operations are all on the right side of the law.

When we went to visit the Financial Services Board to showcase what we’re doing and how we’re doing it (transparency, remember), Sanlam’s compliance department assisted us and opened the right doors for us.

Their doctors and underwriters helped us design a world-class underwriting proposition.

Their actuaries have assisted with data and modelling capacity to help us with pricing, risk management and capital calculations.

And their distribution experts have been very generous with their contacts, ideas and IP, which have guided a lot of our thinking.

But the rest is pure Indie

What I mean by that, is that all the strategic direction, style, brand, products, processes and technology are created for Indie by Indie.

In terms of products, we’ve taken our own unique approach in creating an Indie product philosophy around balancing quality and simplicity; and going back to basics.

This means that your Indie product will not be the same as a Sanlam policy. And you can’t buy an Indie product from Sanlam, or vice versa.

Our approach to pricing and rewards is also unique. Bounty, for example, is unique to Indie.

When you talk to Indie, you are talking to Indie. We are so fully committed to creating wonderful experiences for Indie clients, that we hold dearly onto that.

As a digital-first business, our benchmark is not the typical experience you’ve become accustomed to from financial services companies.

Indie’s technology stack is also built by Indie for Indie. Not only does it offer us increased agility, it is also designed to leverage contemporary and emerging technologies. This means we can offer an amazing experience to our clients, in a fraction of the time and cost. A fully-underwritten quote, for example, takes just minutes.

The data you give Indie, stays with Indie

We will never give your personal details to anyone.

Any data that might flow to Sanlam for the purposes of liability calculations and risk management, is anonymous.

But the most important difference

Indie has its own people, and its own culture. We firmly believe that a business with the best people coupled with an exceptional culture will always flourish.

We are very careful about who we hire, and why. Our values, and the values of our people, are incredibly dear to us, and we are very intentional about how we create a specific Indie culture.