The INSURTECH Book

Dating InsurTech Startups

By Prof. Dr Bjorn Cumps

Professor of Financial Services Innovation and FinTech, Vlerick Business School

ByeBye Traditional Insurance?

Allianz & Simplesurance, Munich Re & Slice, Axa & Trov, Zurich & Cocoon, Manulife & Indico …

Love is all around in the world of InsurTech today. Both large corporates and startups have observed and learned from what happened and is still happening in FinTech: disruptive innovation does not necessarily equal “bye bye traditional insurance companies”. Not all large corporate insurance companies will disappear and startups will not rule the insurance world. In fact, very few new players will manage to truly bring disruptive innovation as defined by Clayton Christensen:¹ “a product or service that takes root initially in simple applications at the bottom of a market and then relentlessly moves up market, eventually displacing established competitors.” Most new players, in InsurTech too, will not be disruptive as such; however, they may change many different aspects of how the insurance sector operates today: new profit models and pricing structures, new products and features, new services, delivery channels, and client interactions. We see a clear trend towards creating better and more personalized client experiences, more client interactions, in-context services, real-time data-driven insurance solutions, microinsurances, claims prevention, and open collaboration (see Table 1). All of these can be valuable. All of these ...