Bitesize InsurTech: Sherpa
August 11, 2017 George Hanks
Sherpa allows people to cover their personal risks with one account.
Chris Kaye, formerly a Partner with Boston Consulting Group in Asia, says that Sherpa is “reinventing” the insurance proposition such that it is no longer structured in the “dysfunctional product boxes defined by history”. This will simplify and personalise the experience for consumers.
The proposition is based on Chris’s own experience: when he relocated from Hong Kong to Europe he says it took him 20-25 hours to “reconstruct” a personal insurance package similar to the one BCG gave him. Sherpa is therefore starting with employee benefits for the non-employed and is targeting people at similar lifestages to Chris: those who have relocated, become independent consultants, etc.
Customers have to do two things to get a policy. First, they have to provide the site with personal data (like any other broker), and second they upload existing policies (like the insurance concierge model – see our Liimex Bitesize or Brolly for other examples). The site then proposes a customised package on a non-advised basis. Sherpa takes a fixed fee (not commission) from customers based on the number of risks that they manage for you.
Sherpa is due to launch an initial risk guidance tool and the Risk Protection ScoreTM in the next few weeks and the full end-to-end insurance account later this year in the UK. Gen Re is collaborating on the underwriting and risk transfer.
The Oxbow Partners view
In our 2016 blog on the InsureTech Connect conference in Las Vegas, Rob Moffat of Balderton Capital pointed out that there was a “battle between two schools of thought on insurance. The first is minimising the thought users need to give to it, and the second is trying to get people to care more about insurance.”
Sherpa is somewhere in between – trying to get people to care more to do something differently, but ultimately helping them give less thought to it.
