Analysis: What are insurtechs doing in the face of the coronavirus pandemic – Part Three: International start-ups?

How well placed are you to trade in the event of travel restrictions/quarantine etc?

Inshur [UK and US] chief operating office and co-founder David Daiches: I feel we are really well placed, we are a 100% digital business, this means policyholders can continue to buy or manage their policies via our app 24/7. There has been no break in our service. We’re fully equipped to give drivers support whether on the phone, chat/message or email. Our Driver Support business hours and means of communication remain unchanged.

Laka [UK, Netherlands and Malaysia] CEO and co-founder Tobias Taupitz: Laka was built from the ground up as a ‘digital-first’ business – all of our processes are online, so we’re well placed to deal with Covid-19. The only physical point-of-contact we have with Laka community members is with the delivery of claims recipients. In-line with current government guidance, our fulfilment team has implemented deep cleaning measures and have adopted social-distancing practises at their warehouses. The team from Laka’s head office are all working as normal at home.

Next Insurance [USA] CEO and co-founder Guy Goldstein: Next Insurance is very well positioned to continue to provide phenomenal service to our customers. Given that we are 100% online, there will be absolutely no interruption in service, and we will continue to provide tailored and affordable insurance coverage to existing and new customers. We are also aware of how Covid-19 may be impacting our small business customers during this challenging time and are doing everything we can to help them maintain regular business operations. 

Tractable [UK, US and Japan] president and co-founder Adrien Cohen: Our core business – using artificial intelligence to accelerate auto claims for the world’s largest insurers – will operate as normal, and we expect there to be little to no disruption from our side. In addition, as our tech enables a remote assessment of auto damage, our solution could prove particularly beneficial to the ecosystem during these difficult times. That said, we will likely see a drop in claims volume from our clients, not least because the travel lockdown means people are using their cars less, which will result in fewer cases to process. 

Where we will also see impact is on getting the word out about Tractable, as we are an international company and travel abroad has become more difficult. For example, we have already seen several major European insurance conferences be postponed, and it isn’t clear what the outlook for the rest of the year will be there.

Trov [UK and US] spokesperson: We pride ourselves in maintaining extraordinary relationships with all of our customers and partners. During this difficult time, we will continue to work closely with them. While there will be tweaks to the ways in which we work together and communicate, for example not being able to meet face-to-face, it is very much business as usual.

Can staff work from home and can they access all the technology they would in the office?

Daiches: We fully transitioned to remote working across all teams and both UK and New York offices this week. Teams were prepped for the transition with the equipment and information they needed. Two weeks ago we executed a ‘trial run’ of a fully remote working day. The aim was to identify any gaps or weaknesses in our strategy, it went well and proved valuable as it became apparent that the Covid-19 outbreak was going to result in quarantine.

We’re a technology-led business and our front-office systems are cloud-based and accessible securely from anywhere. So we have invested in the right infrastructure and teams to enable growth and agility so transitioning to remote working has been a simple exercise. Using tools like Slack, Slab and Zoom enables us to communicate regularly and have meant there’s been no interruption to business as usual.

Businesses have in effect been forced into a giant flexible working experiment. My view is that this situation, while a terrible human tragedy, will be formative in how businesses operate, not just in the insurance sector but business in general.

Taupitz: Laka has been operating fully remotely since Monday March 9th. We are well-placed to deal with Covid-19 because all of our processes are digital – this is particularly beneficial for Laka’s customer service team.

Many traditional insurers will struggle to migrate their customer services teams over to remote working – these teams will often be located in large call centres that are reliant on traditional landline phones to connect with customers. Traditional call centre agents typically won’t operate via laptop, and as a result will struggle to access all the required systems and software remotely.

At Laka, we don’t have this issue as all teams and customer service agents work digitally, and our customer service infrastructure can be accessed from home by our team – our agents do work from their laptops and can work anywhere in the world as a result.

Goldstein: Yes. In line with direction from local and federal government, all of our staff have been directed to work from home. Employees continue to have access to business-grade technology to stay connected and conduct meetings online. Staff were also given the opportunity to collect their office and desk supplies, including monitors and keyboards, to create the most efficient and comfortable work from home setting as possible. Our teams are committed to collaborating as efficiently as they would in the office. We have also provided resources and seminars on best practices for working from home. All of these actions have provided a seamless work from home transition as employees get used to this new normal. 

Cohen: Our guiding principle is to put everyone’s health and safety first. Two weekends ago, we decided to fully move our London and New York staff to work from home effective from 18^th March onward. We decided this was in the best interest of team members, and social distancing is a positive contribution we can all make to slowing down the spread of the virus. 

We are providing everything required in terms of equipment and support to make that process flow as smoothly as possible. We are training all Tractable employees and line managers in particular with regards to effectively and productively working from home at scale, and how to keep a healthy and happy life throughout this unprecedented period.

Trov: We’ve always had progressive remote working policies due to the fact that our team is typically 75% remote, and thanks to this we are in a good position to ensure our employees can work effectively during this period. We have closed our offices in Danville and New York until at least 7th April. We are also making a few additional changes, in order to increase our communication and keep our team connected. 

We’re extending our weekly all-company meetings to allow for additional insights from our leadership team, and we’re also introducing new ways for our employees to have some fun with our online tools, which include online trivia, games, and video tours of our workspaces. 

Do you think being an insurtech makes you more resilient than other insurance businesses during these testing times?

Daiches: The situation represents an unprecedented challenge for any business. For traditional insurance operators where scale, broker networks and size were the traditional measures of success, the problem becomes amplified.

Our digital customer proposition and self-service app mean we can function as a much leaner business and this helps reduce operating expenditure. For example, less than 5% of our customers ever need to contact us as they are able to manage their own policy via the app.

Goldstein: There’s no doubt that our 100% digital service is an advantage and that allows our customers to interact with us while staying at home. Our small business customers have come to rely on the ease and speed of which they can secure coverage, the affordability of our product and the phenomenal service that we consistently provide. This will certainly not change during this current global crisis. 

Cohen: Hard to tell. What I would say though is as we have clients across ten countries and three continents, and have just raised a funding round, we ourselves are in a resilient position, as we aren’t heavily reliant on customers in one specific market that might be heavily affected, and are well-financed.  

Equally, our core technology is cloud-based, so our services are not tied to a physical location. So from that point of view, the disruption is reasonably limited. Of course, these are uncertain times, so we are constantly working to assess the situation, act on those assessments, and then assess again so we can be fluid in our decision-making. 

Are staff being banned from going to external meetings and non-essential travel?

Daiches: For more than two weeks we have strongly encouraged that all teams avoid external meetings, inviting visitors to the office and non-essential travel. Avoiding unnecessary contact has been important, this is a human situation and we all need to take accountability for our actions. It’s very clear from lessons in the Far East that isolation and avoiding contact has slowed the spread.

Taupitz: We have had a formal ‘work from home’ policy since the 9th March, and all in-person meetings have been cancelled, for now. We haven’t put in place a formal directive around travel or social interaction – our employees can decide for themselves what is appropriate for them.

Goldstein: We take the health of our employees extremely seriously. In light of recent developments in terms of social distancing, guidance from local and federal government and circumstances specific to the communities where our offices are located, we are advising staff to refrain from all external meetings and non-essential travel. We believe this is the most responsible thing to do as we unite together to do our part in containing the spread of Covid-19. 

Cohen: Our priority is the safety of team members, so staff are required to not attend non-essential meetings, and practise social distancing. We want our team to play their part in flattening the curve. 

Trov: We have restricted all travel, unless absolutely necessary and only if approved by the leadership team.  We have emphasised to the entire team that all of our company meetings (such as company-wide all-hands) are mandatory. We also record each of these and post the videos in the appropriate Slack channels for those who are unable to watch in real-time due to time zone difference

Are you putting any measures in place to help staff suffering from anxiety relating to Covid-19?

Daiches: Good mental health is always a priority for us as a business. All of our leadership team and managers are trained mental health first aid champions and we have several mental health-focused processes as standard, such as ‘safe place to talk’ one-to-ones with the people team. So really, it’s been about ramping up those measures following the Covid-19 outbreak.

Communication is key when remote working. Our people team checks in regularly with all team members with a quick message each morning and we’ve produced strong documentation that everyone can access. These cover not just best practices when working remotely, but also advice on how to cope with stress and anxiety, and the best ways for managers to approach conversations with their teams that promote good mental health.

We’ve been finding new and inventive ways to keep the community spirit strong with daily activities to help with isolation, from daily coffee breaks over Zoom, live streaming yoga and meditation sessions and even quarantine challenges like sharing the most creative workstation.

Taupitz: We’ve brought in a number of initiatives to ensure that our employees have regular and sociable contact with their colleagues. Once a week we run a virtual team lunch, where everyone orders something from Deliveroo (paid for by Laka), and we all dial-in and just talk to one another and enjoy each other’s company. We’re also running daily team meetings every morning at 10.30am, and we’re also encouraging the team to take time-out to complete virtual yoga or meditation sessions to help them stay active, both physically and mentally, in this lock-down period.

Goldstein: As we transition into a remote work environment, we are providing resources for our employees on best practices on how to stay physically and mentally healthy as they get used to the current situation. Additionally, we have set up Slack channels for teams and managers to regularly connect on work tasks and projects or just to say hello. We not only encourage employees to regularly check-in with colleagues to see how they’re doing. Additionally, employees have access to an employee assistance program that assists them with personal and work-related problems that may impact their job performance, health, mental health and emotional well-being. Teams are also finding fun ways to stay connected by holding virtual morning coffees, lunches and happy hours as we adapt to the current state of the world. 

Cohen: We place a high priority on the well-being of our staff. We have ensured we communicate with them openly and fully throughout this situation, and they know that our HR team will help with any needs they have – both in terms of physical resources, and any other support – that they might require going forward.

There are specific measures we are putting in place specifically to take care of the mental health of our employees, such as making sure the leadership is empathetic to the team. For example, we have people working with us who have underlying health conditions, or live with people who are in an at-risk category, or have relatives who live in areas that have been badly hit. So, we need to make sure we are attentive to everyone’s specific situations, and ensure we frequently collect feedback on how they are coping. 

That means we are also training all our line managers to take care of their team’s mental health, and to check in with them on that regularly; setting up a ‘help desk’ which will allow all employees to speak to a member of the HR team for any question or worry they might have; and providing employees with a budget for each of them to buy equipment needed to maintain a healthy life while working from home.

Trov: Even though we’re well acquainted with remote operations, ‘forced’ isolation is likely to feel a little different. While all of us are facing these difficulties, not one of our team members will process the uncertainties the same as another. So, we have asked our employees to be overly communicative during this period, check-in with one another, and bring (even more) empathy - expressed through patience and understanding - to all of their interactions. If any of the team wants to speak to our CEO, Scott Walchek, they are invited to do so and have access to his personal cell phone number. 

Are you putting any measures in place to help policyholders/clients suffering from anxiety relating to Covid-19? [including self employed, small businesses and those deemed vulnerable]

Daiches: Historically, drivers buying commercial auto insurance have had very little to shout about in terms of customer experience. We have worked very hard to change that and put customer service at the heart of what we do. It’s a value we live by as a company. We are in talks right now with our carrier and distribution partners to investigate a range of options to support our policyholders to help ease any financial burden.

Taupitz: Laka is a community-based company, so we’re currently looking at ways of supporting members who may have suffered adversity or hardship as a result of this outbreak. Laka will offer our community a way to pause their insurance during the Covid-19 outbreak and will be communicating this soon. As a community, we’re also looking at building out our social channels so that cyclists can interact with one another when cycling outdoors together may not be possible.

Goldstein: One of the cornerstones of our business is delivering phenomenal service. Our doors remain open and we are 100% committed to assisting our customers during this unsettling time. We always offer monthly payment options and zero cancellation fees. We are also exploring ways of providing relief to customers in need via premium reduction and/or instituting payment grace periods. We will continue to re-evaluate how we can implement further assistance and give more flexibility to customers as the situation progresses. 

Additionally, we are providing customers with business specific information to help clarify CDC and local guidance and give direction on how to take action to protect specific lines of business (for example: restaurants, janitorial, contractors, and many more). 

We will stay committed to helping our small business customers navigate this unprecedented time to the best of our ability.

To read Part One: UK insurtech start-ups click here

To read Part Two: Pan-European insurtech start-ups click here