A new partnership, an evolving business model in a changing market also due to the financial emergency. We interviewed Neosurance CEO Pietro Menghi to have him tell us the news of this fintech and its objectives for the coming months.
You have recently formed a partnership with a company: Sportclubby. What does it consist of? How do you enrich their offer?
We have had the opportunity of playing the role of an insurance and enabling partners for digital communities that offer their users a more complete experience because they are more protected.
Sportclubby is the most downloaded app in Italy for booking courses, camps and services dedicated to any sport, used by 500 thousand people, for more than 100 different sports activities. Thanks to this partnership, sportsmen and women can instantly activate a micro-insurance for any type of injury directly from an app and, once again from an app, report any claim. All this is done through a transparent approach, focused on the client and the context in which the need for protection arises. The policy can be purchased even for just one day and is valid 24 hours a day, even on the way to the gym or for those who attend online classes from home.
At first it was activated only in an “on demand” mode, but then we became able to analyze, in a big data key, the risks related to the various sports and respond to the specific need for coverage of people with a push offer, as soon as they are preparing to do physical activity or, purchasing a subscription or participating in a tournament or any other amateur competition. Especially among younger users, there is little awareness of the risks and possibilities of being covered from them; there is in fact a huge “protection gap”. Thanks to our platform, which combines machine learning and behavioral sciences, we will be able to offer Sportclubby users the right protection, to the right users, when they really need it and with the right style of communication.
Since your birth until today has your business model changed? How has it changed?
Neosurance has adopted an exclusively B2B2C model in order to enhance the relationship binding a digital community to its users, through the offer of relevant protection and assistance solutions. The revenue model of Neosurance, in addition to technological and consulting services in the realization of end to end insurance customer journeys, focuses on revenues from brokerage since we are an insurance broker. Our digital partner communities don’t incur any cost for this qualification. On the contrary, we offer them the possibility to monetize their user base in full and absolutely respecting their privacy.
Over time we have significantly expanded our end-user offer with a subscription, pay-per-use, instant insurance products and services on all channels. At the same time we have opened up to other insurance intermediaries, including brokers, agents and banks, the possibility of using our proprietary distribution platform, the Open Insurance Platforrm, as a Service. Thanks to this very important innovation, we have really managed to develop a win-win solution. On the insurance company’s side we maximize the scalability of the same insurance product cross-distributor and cross-channel; on the single channel side we maximize the effectiveness in sales because we are able to fully differentiate and customize each commercial proposal of the same product according to the channel, user and context. To all this, it should be added that the same platform is able to automatically manage both intermediation and reporting models, and that what is described on a single product is valid for “n” products, for “n” companies and on “n” countries at the same time.
From your point of view how is the fintech sector evolving in Italy?
Although smaller than in other more mature European contexts, Italian fintech is growing rapidly, even in the smallest insurtech sector. The sector is still relatively young and mostly characterized by solutions moving the sales channel online, assuming that the user is already aware and informed and spontaneously searches online for the policy for his/her needs.
Instead, we are convinced we need to add another perspective for the future of the industry: insurance can be bought, but rather sold. And in order to meet needs, customers and solutions at the right time, the most advanced technologies will make the difference. Certainly the digital acceleration, which has affected every sector in the year of the pandemic, has offered many stimuli also in this scenario, with a growing interest on the part of incumbents to enter into partnerships with innovative players to improve their offerings. However, we also need a global vision from day zero, which, by enhancing ecosystems, creates scalable and exportable models. Making possible ecosystems, proprietary platforms, DNA and international insurance and reinsurance network, blending of expertise specialized in insurance processes, legal & compliance, advanced technology, UX design: these are the distinctive and interdependent assets that make Neosurance unique in the world.
What impact is the pandemic having on the fintech world from your point of view?
New scenarios are emerging that will be at the basis of the growth of many fintech services: greater awareness of the interdependence between people, companies, sectors and countries, greater sense of precariousness and insecurity, a greater attention to the short and medium term, a strong thinning of the border between home and office and between the person and the professional. Practical implications of these tensions are an increasingly “systematic” attention to the risks of cybersecurity related to work in mobility and the use of personal devices; we will see a strong growth in the demand for protection solutions related to work as freelancers, and probably a different balance between property and shared economy in different sectors. The home has become the place where we work, study, do sport and shopping: needless to say, digital payments are becoming mainstream, with the unstoppable growth of e-commerce, but also of related fraud. Risks related to life in the home will also increase and attention to our own the health, our family and even our pets will increase, while unemployment will produce new situations of poverty, with the inability to cope with even basic expenses. And in view of a revival of moments and new ways of social aggregation, it will be necessary to prevent and manage new risks linked for example to urban micro mobility, rather than participation in events. The new challenge for those who work in insurtech will be to intercept these needs among people and SMEs, in the digital contexts they frequent, helping them to protect themselves with the right tools, to face this situation of uncertainty and instability with greater serenity and determination. Neosurance is working hard to do its part.