Bitesize InsurTech: Konsileo
May 26, 2017 George Hanks
Konsileo is a UK based SME insurance broker.
In contrast to the other SME broking startups we have covered this month (Assur’up, CoverWallet, Next Insurance and Liimex), Konsileo is targeting the ‘M’ of ‘SME’ – businesses that spend £3k or more on insurance each year.
Similarly to Liimex, Konsileo is not attempting to make the human broker redundant; instead it is building tech to enhance the value and reliability of the advice brokers can offer.
Founded in 2015, the business recently received its FCA license and will shortly be partnering with a large chartered broker to demonstrate proof of concept. Its business model is, however, to attract individual brokers onto its platform – it aims to have circa 10 brokers by the end of the year and ‘many more’ by the end of 2018.
What problems are Konsileo solving?
According to founder and CEO, John Warburton, Konsileo addresses three widespread problems in broking today:
- Broking platforms are poor – the legacy systems used in the industry require significant manual data entry
- Broking staff are unhappy – many broking staff spend too much of their time doing low-value admin tasks
- Use of data is minimal – much of the data collected by brokers is not used to analyse and improve performance (e.g. risk mitigation)
What is their solution?
Konsileo are tackling each of these problems directly:
- New broking platform – Konsileo have built an end-to-end broking platform that uses AI to automate administrative tasks
- Organizational restructure – Konsileo are tapping into the growing ‘virtualization of professional services’ trend (see Axiom for Law and Purple Bricks for Real Estate) whereby brokers can be part of the Konsileo ecosystem but work remotely
- Data analysis – the Konsileo platform collects data and allows it to be used by brokers and underwriters to improve both processes and underwriting
According to John, these solutions will allow brokers to spend more time advising customers better, making them the preferred choice of both underwriters and customers.
The Oxbow Partners view
Konsileo’s strategic hypothesis is clear: there is a steady oligopoly of SME technology platforms. They are expensive for insurers in particular to engage with, and in a market like this there are always opportunities to experiment with new experiences for both customers and brokers.
The exit case for Konsileo is also clear. Marsh acquired Leeds-based SME Insurance in 2015. SMEI had invested in building an efficient SME platform open to both brokers and SMEs direct. Marsh is now using this technology to support its traditional SME operations.
If Konsileo can persuade sufficient brokers to take a risk and move their portfolios across to its platform, then we see this as being a business that could scale quickly – and be acquired by one of the big brokers soon after.
There’s a good article that goes into more depth here on Insurance Times.
