The future is here, and it’s in your smartphone
New app will revolutionise insurance products
There’s no doubt the smartphone is a remarkable tool. We’ve had smartphone banking for years, opening up banking services to millions of previously unbanked people.
Among the problems banks had to solve in the smartphone service rollout were security and client verification. The latter requires a visit to a branch, but that will soon change.
A similar revolution is taking place in insurance. Cape Town-based fintech company Root, backed by Guardrisk parent MMI, has created an API (application programming interface) that allows software developers to build and prototype insurance products at little or no cost.
Guardrisk has partnered with Root in the development of the API, which is likely to lead to a proliferation of insurance products in the coming years. Guardrisk CEO Herman Schoeman highlights just one of the possible uses of fintech solutions: the ability for insurers to track — and reward — customers for safe driving using smartphones to monitor driver speed.
The number of potential uses is endless. Apps are already available to monitor health and exercise, and these could ultimately be incorporated into insurance products that reward clients for living a healthy lifestyle.
The marriage of insurance and technology has given rise to a new term — insuretech. Several new insurance startups have launched products along the lines of smart banking. They include Naked, Fosho and Hero Life, all of which make extensive use of advanced technology to digitally interact with clients.
Guardrisk, in partnership with Root, intends to be at the forefront of this revolution in product development and distribution.
The beauty of this approach is that entrepreneurs and developers do not need an insurance licence to get started, since Guardrisk can provide that.
It can also provide the back-end actuarial services, claims management and administration that is the real barrier to entry to this market. In this way, Guardrisk expects widespread unleashing of innovation and growth in the insurance landscape over the next decade.