InsurTech firm Sherpa has announced plans to collaborate with reinsurer Gen Re to offer customer-driven insurance cover to provide clients with a single underwriting process and account for all risks insured, replacing and simplifying traditional methods of insuring on a product by-product basis with separate policies and processes.
The new business model uses artificial intelligence (AI) and personal data to create a personal profile that educates consumers on their biggest risks and builds a unique cover offer to match their personal needs.
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Sherpa, Chris Kaye, said; “We ran a rigorous process to find the right reinsurer with the support of broker Guy Carpenter. Gen Re is flexible, responsive and shares our long-term vision for changing the traditional insurance model – exactly what we were looking for – so the choice was easy and clear.”
Jules Constantinou, Regional Manager, UK and Ireland, Life and Health business, Gen Re, commented that “working with an insurtech disruptor like Sherpa allows Gen Re to be agile and fast-paced in the traditional world of insurance which demonstrates our commitment to innovation. We believe this will benefit consumers, and ultimately our industry.”
InsurTech Sherpa is run by a team of entrepreneurs, insurance industry veterans, technology experts, mathematicians, and data and marketing gurus.
It’s set to operate in all insurance sectors, including home, health, life, travel, car, devices and pets, and will launch to UK consumers in the fourth-quarter of 2017, from where it hopes to spread into a global community of partners and members.
The new business model is expected to disrupt global insurance and reinsurance industries, saving time and money for client and cover provider, and using AI to connect reinsurers directly with the consumer, cutting out the need for multiple middle men including primary insurers and intermediaries.
However, as the InsurTech revolution moves forward full steam, the insurance ‘middle men’ too are increasingly investing in new technologies and start-ups to streamline processes, so while InsurTech and reinsurer partnerships such as these look set to disrupt the industry, time will tell which of the new solutions will be the catapult that caters to the demands of the future, and which will see players pushed further down or cut off from the supply chain.
