Emerging trends in insurance are a direct result of progress on the business and technology front. These trends in innovation are currently setting the industry on fire. Not only is the insurance landscape evolving at a fast pace, but also insurTechs are presently disrupting the industry with their digital modus operandi and by altogether redefining their offerings. Exciting times lie ahead as insurTechs bring about lower operational costs, advanced product innovation, and enhanced customer satisfaction.

 

InsurTechs are also transforming the way insurers work with technologies like mobile, artificial intelligence, and blockchain. The adoption of these technologies in the market will drive more personalized insurance, where insurers will be able to price policyholders down to the individual level accurately. Some of the benefits that smart technologies deliver to the insurance industry are described below:

 

Mobile

Times have changed from the use of paper applications to obtaining and managing policies on a smartphone. The use of mobile technology not only adds constant pressure to brokers and agents, but it also improves efficiency and increases margins for the insurer. 

 

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

AI has great potential to revolutionize the industry right from real-time risk assessment to automated document processing to improving fraud-detection. One of the most significant advantages of AI is the ability to efficiently carry out administrative work, thereby freeing up the workforce for more critical tasks.

 

Blockchain

Blockchain has a significant impact on the insurance sector in several ways. The technology enables individuals to capture their data such as medical records, fitness data, consumption habits, and the like, from various sources seamlessly. When this data is shared with insurance companies, it will be highly useful for improving risk profiling and therefore, lower the overall premium for customers.

 

Blockchain also has the potential to deter fraudulent activities as claims can be more accurately assessed. If insurance companies have shared records or interoperability across their blockchains, it will reduce multiple claims across various insurance providers. Blockchain that is powered by smart-contracts will further empower the insurance industry to issue and review micro-insurance policies effectively and have claims paid out in an automated manner.

 

Besides these technological advancements, the insurance market is witnessing a rise in the micro-consumption of a variety of products and services. This is made possible due to the popularity of sharing-economy services such as Turo, Task Rabbit, and Uber. In parallel, the need for usage-based insurance has increased dramatically in the last few years. Driven heavily by these rising trends, the need for on-demand microinsurance is more common and has seen steady growth as people move to a world where insurance needs and risk are becoming increasingly dynamic. 

 

Bridging the Gap between Traditional and the New World of On-Demand Insurance

 

With the rise of the internet and flexible working methods across Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), short-term hourly insurance products are noticeably in demand. While these micro-insurances may not look like they are worth the time and effort, many enterprises are working towards making short-term insurance possible given the opportunity to cater to an untapped growing market. 

 

With the growing need for insurers and their partners to cater to these customers, JAUNTIN’ was established in 2017 by Rain Takahashi.  Created out of the Founder Institute Toronto Chapter and the Global Insurance Accelerator in Des Moines, Iowa, with additional support from Secure Erie Accelerator in Erie, Pennsylvania, JAUNTIN’ enables a smooth digital distribution of scalable, on-demand micro-insurance either directly or through platforms or brokers. They leverage mobile and micro-service technologies to allow insurers to access new markets with limited up-front risks and costs while streamlining the process to eliminate costly call centers and manual paperwork for each transaction.

 

As a white-label cloud service, JAUNTIN’ works with short-term insurance automation and disruption of health insurance, events, small properties, and ride/car/home sharing. “JAUNTIN’ adopts a consulting approach to help insurers jump on the short-term insurance bandwagon seamlessly. By leveraging our existing market-ready platform, we can get a solution online in a fraction of the time it would otherwise take insurers,” explains Takahashi. 

 

Driving Change with Significant Differentiators and Key Strategies

 

Unlike many of its competitors, JAUNTIN’ stands out in the market for its distinct advantages. The firm can quickly and easily embed a partner’s on-demand insurance offering into third-party websites, apps, and platforms. “Once the initial integration is created between JAUNTIN’ and the insurer, scaling that product becomes significantly easier through our APIs,” claims Takahashi. JAUNTIN’ enables partners to get started and running quickly. Takahashi adds, “The process of embedding our partner’s on-demand insurance offerings happen so quickly, that even the legal contracts to formalize the relationship takes longer than what it takes on the technology side.”

 

One of JAUNTIN’s fundamental business strategy is to maintain a start-up mentality while taking an iterative approach with partners. “As tempting as it is to ‘go-big’ from the beginning, we find that many of our partners appreciate the method of starting small with a minimal viable product to test the waters,” states Takahashi. This iterative approach that the company follows has many advantages, including a reduced effort to get signoffs from senior managers and it also involves lesser legal paperwork.

 

Unveiling the Team that is Disrupting the Insurance Landscape

 

Given how insurance is exponentially progressing, the leadership team at JAUNTIN’ is proactively working with insurers to evolve with the changing times. The key team members include the following: 

 

Rain Takahashi – Founder

Rain Takahashi is a self-proclaimed geek who fell in love with the insurance industry by accident. Before JAUNTIN’, Takahashi was a product management consultant with several global brands, and he also designed and developed intuitive user experience to drive increased customer engagement. His previous stints as a consultant and freelance/gig-worker made him realized the struggles of policyholders and insurers alike. He founded JAUNTIN’ to help deal with these challenges, and since then, Rain Takahashi has won several awards, including runner-up at the Web Summit 2017. Takahashi is being increasingly recognized as a subject matter expert in the area of insurtech and on-demand insurance and can be regularly seen speaking at conferences and events around the world. 

 

Aly Madhavji – Advisor

Aly Madhavji is a managing partner at Blockchain Founders Fund which invests in start-ups, as well as provides consulting services to companies and governmental organizations. He has served on various blockchain advisory roles and is a senior advisor to BitBlock Capital, Fiat Capital Fund, Polymath, University of Toronto’s Governing Council, and JAUNTIN’. He also consults with the United Nations on emerging technology solutions to help alleviate poverty, increase financial inclusion, support business ecosystems, and improve society at large. As a co-founder and former CEO of a digital currency exchange, Aly also holds designations of a chartered professional accountant, chartered accountant, certified management accountant, and chartered investment manager.

 

Aly Madhavji has worked with many top-tier companies across four continents and is a mentor with Chinaccelerator, one of the elite accelerator programs, as well as the Mobile Only Accelerator (MOX) which helps the best mobile start-ups from around the world acquire millions of users on its smartphone platform. Aly Madhavji, an industry thought leader, is also an internationally-acclaimed author that has published many award-winning books, as well as a much sought-after speaker at various summits and conferences globally.

 

Mansoor Madhavji – Advisor

Mansoor Madhavji is another partner at Blockchain Founders Fund and serves as an advisor to innovative insurtech firms such as FinTech, AgTech, and eSports, as well as emerging technology start-ups including JAUNTIN’, Pay1x, Agryo, Jiang Hu, and Mltrons. Mansoor is known for supporting numerous projects on developing go-to-market, sophisticated economic models, and branding strategies. He has created unique and cost-effective growth hacks for his clients that have often surpassed customer acquisition benchmarks.

 

Previously, Mansoor traded equities and derivatives and ran an international digital marketing and branding agency across North America and Asia. He also served as the head of content with an innovative technology firm working on growth and marketing strategies, as well as launching secure digital currency exchanges across South East Asia and India. Like Aly, Mansoor is also a mentor with

Chinaccelerator and MOX.

 

Revolutionizing Insurance with Better Engagement, Increased Brand Loyalty, and Reduced Costs
 

JAUNTIN’ offers a range of products and services, including chatbots, general consulting, and SaaS – microservices. However, no matter the offering, JAUNTIN’ has the potential to transform any insurance product.

 

At present, the firm offers on-demand healthcare benefits and liability coverage to freelancers and gig workers. JAUNTIN’ provides control and coverage based on their work schedule for prescription drugs, tele-med, and the like. Even though these small businesses operate part-time, it is essential to hold liability insurance, which can be provided on an incremental basis as and when needed. “Geofencing can also be customized accordingly to meet business needs,” reveals Takahashi.   

 

Enabling Insurers to Thrive in A Digital Future

 

As an insurtech company, JAUNTIN’ offers an on-demand micro-insurance platform that is operable from a mobile device, to provide clients with higher profit margins while optimizing risks. Some of the advantages that JAUNTIN’ delivers to insurers include:

 

• Embracing opportunities to participate in the emerging insurTech world by white-labeling the platform to fit within the brand
• Collecting and optimizing the available data of customers to provide competitive pricing and better risk analysis
• Accessing aggregate data collected from all partners and their policyholders which can further be shared with the industry
• Staying completely paperless and turning insurance on and off with a simple swipe of the finger
• Eliminating the lengthy and obsolete processes of purchasing insurance policies
• Attaining all necessary information and activating policies via simple and easy steps on a mobile device
• Reaching out and retaining a broader base of customers by providing access to previously unattainable markets

 

While JAUNTIN’ currently offers products from four leading insurers, the firm has active pilots with three insurers in North America and plans to expand their products and services to Europe soon. “Now that we have a solid foothold with our platform, for the road ahead, we intend to improve each microservice and add additional features. Parallelly, we plan to accelerate our partnerships with third-party gig-platforms that would benefit from embedding us and our partners’ products into their websites and apps,” concludes Takahashi.