The rise of digital platforms, mobile applications and data has driven customer demands for quicker and more effective service than ever before. They seek offerings that are smart, customised and easy to use.
This transformation is taking place across industries and those that fail to adapt risk lagging behind.
Among the key sectors ramping up its digital transformation is the insurance sector. With insurtechs increasingly collaborating with established players, the insurance market is poised for promising growth.
While insurtech is at an early stage in the UAE, there are plenty of opportunities in the market as innovators and traditional players work together to develop new technologies for the benefit of customers. In fact, Capgemini’s World InsurTech Report, revealed that 67 percent of UAE-based insurers wanted to collaborate with insurtechs.
ITP.net spoke to Dhirendra Mahyavanshi, Co-Founder, Turtlemint, an insurtech startup to find out how the region’s insurance market is shaping up.
How does the insurtech market complement the traditional insurance sector?
The traditional insurance industry has been in the market for almost 100 years now. This is a sector that is ripe for disruption. In the last three to four years, this is exactly what happened.
In the recent past, a large number of activities took place in the market, which drove traditional insurers to rethink their distribution models, enhance their product underwriting and improve the claims settlement processes.
Insurance companies are fundamentally risk capacity providers. Insurtech players are the ones offering technology solutions to help them do their business better. They enable insurance companies to enhance the creation, distribution and administration of the insurance business. Insurtech ensures that the right kind of technology is being implemented across all parts of the insurance value chain.
The relationship between insurance and insurtech players is extremely complementary and collaborative. Part of our role is to help organisations streamline insurance processes. In line with this, we make sure to work with our partners to develop tools and platforms that will enhance the systems they have in place. We are also working with our partners to develop content and resources that will help empower advisors.
How important is the role of data in the insurtech space?
We believe that we are in the business of data. Essentially because we deal with predictable risks.
At Turtlemint, we have access to data from numerous insurance companies across India, UAE and other markets where we have a presence in. We are working closely with banks, tech startups and insurance companies, helping us effectively make sense of all these data from different parts of the world.
By leveraging the data that we have, we identified gaps in the market. We have developed new products and services that will enable insurance companies to reach underserved markets. Through this data, we are also able to improve the claims settlement procedures, which is a vital aspect of the insurance process.
Data is an integral part of our business and I do believe that we’ve only just scratched the surface. That’s why we acquired IOPhysics, a cloud data analytics company, to make sure that we get the most value out of the data that we have.
What are the challenges that players in the insurtech space are facing?
One of the key challenges that we are facing is the shortage of talent and intellectual property. Traditionally, insurance is not the most attractive sector for most technology talents. IT professionals, especially fresh graduates, opt to venture into industries such as e-commerce, travel and hospitality among others.
However, this is slowly changing and there is a growing interest in the insurtech space from the talent market. This is somewhat driven by the increasing need for digitisation in the insurance sector. People are now keen to understand the different career opportunities in this field.
Turtlemint to bring digital insurance buying experience for Mashreq customers
What is Turtlemint’s vision for the UAE market?
The UAE has a vibrant ecosystem where people and organisations across industries want to be at the cutting edge. It is a market that has a strong appetite for innovation where business leaders are always on the lookout for new and superior digital solutions that can help them address their own needs as well as their customers’.
More importantly, government regulations in the UAE are evolving as regulators witness the rising need for transparency in the insurance space as well as the growing customer demands for innovative, secure and user-friendly products.
Since setting up shop here in the UAE, we have garnered plenty of positive feedback from the local market and received great support from the government.
Looking ahead, we see our Dubai headquarters becoming our technology hub for the entire region, paving the way for our expansion into other markets in MENA.
