The future of B2B insurance is embedded: our investment in insureQ
Welcome insureQ — we are beyond excited to lead the €5mio seed round in the Munich-based InsurTech with the participation of GFC and Flash Ventures (👋 Johann).
Did you know that roughly 50% of SME business owners are not adequately covered by “basic” insurance policies (such as liability & indemnity)? If you are a founder or a small business owner, chances are that your business is severely underinsured and exposed to risks.
The root causes are diverse: for once, insurance products are complex and it is difficult to understand what is needed, but also the sheer purchasing process is painful. Most SMEs are unknowingly underinsured, and those who know of their missing insurance cover are then faced with a 20th-century purchasing process (including lengthy questionnaires, week-long waiting time & fax machines). Yes fax, I am not kidding 📠.
Traditional insurers are not positioned to serve this segment well: relying on agent-based, non-digital channels, combined with a slow and inflexible operating model, results in an inherent misfit between the costs of acquisition and smaller-than-MNE insurance premiums.
And if you think it’s a niche problem of underinsurance:
We are talking of a major share of the $1 trillion B2B insurance premium potential only for SMEs worldwide
Enter insureQ: the team of insureQ revolutionizes the way SMEs, micro-SMEs and freelancers purchase insurance: offered in a one-stop approach, 100% online, in bundles you actually need, and within 9 minutes (and no fax!). The experience matches your B2C-like expectation.
The highly targeted recommended bundles remove the insurance product complexity, and the streamlined UI/UX takes out the pain of the customer journey. The check-out feels like a typical software purchase.
In the background, insureQ matches the products from three major insurance companies to your profile.
On the surface, this already makes an interesting opportunity.
Let’s take a peek below the “hood”, what additionally really excites us:
- Embedded, hybrid distribution approach: In addition to selling the insurance products through insureQ’s owned channels (such as the funnel on the homepage), the startup chose a hybrid distribution approach; the entire product is built API-first from day one. This enables the integration of the company’s recommendation engine and offered product in (almost) any checkout. Thus, insureQ has the ability to sell its insurance products at different purchasing moments of the customer’s journey, in channels that are not owned by insureQ. How about purchasing an insurance cover if you open your company’s bank account online?
- Core Team: The leadership team impressed us from the first (virtual) meeting: the core team combines strong leadership skills with a bold vision, relevant technical expertise, and a wealth of insurance knowledge. Additionally, the team had almost completed hiring the rest of the team on the day of signing, with key hires with track records from personio, check24, Allianz, Google and other Big Tech. We are excited to see this entire team get to work, and putting our €5m to use.
Of course, a medium article is too short to go into (also confidential) details of our investment thesis, but to sum up the four main points: large & underserved market SME opportunity, product UI/UX focus, and really: embedded API-first approach, and finally the team convinced us to lead the current seed round.
Alex, Luisa, Laibing & the rest of insureQ team, it’s a great pleasure to be on this journey together. We are really excited about the upcoming years!
🎟️ Founders: are you covered with a D&O insurance? Cyber risk? At least general liability I hope?? Head over to insureQ to get covered within 9 min.
👩💻 Ps. insureQ is hiring, are you ready to disrupt B2B SME insurance?
🤓 More info here: http://www.insureq.de/
Originally published at https://nautacapital.com on April 19, 2021.
