The P2P insurance model promises to change the conflict dynamic between insured and the insurer. From Friendsurance to Guevara and the eagerly anticipated Lemonade, P2P insurance has already evolved two generations in six years. Now, we see the emergence of the next generation of P2P insurance; the self-governing model.
People-to-People Insurance
The jury may be out on the peer-to-peer insurance model, but that hasn’t stopped the steady stream of new entrants who believe in fundamentally changing the dynamic between insured and insurer.
Back in December, I wrote this article on P2P insurance and featured two very different InsurTech start-ups.
First, there was TongJuBao, a Chinese peer-to-peer insurer that provides social risk sharing insurance products. Recently, Tang Loaec, the founder/CEO sent me this announcement of a strategic partnership to distribute the company's products through Huaxia Finance across Greater China.
See Also: Is P2P a Realistic Alternative?
The second was Guevara, the U.K. motor insurer that was first to take the P2P model beyond a pure distribution play. I must give credit to Paul Andersen, Guevara’s co-founder and CEO, for the term “people-to-people insurance,” which is way more appropriate than peer-to-peer.
Since that article, there has been a stream of announcements from the pseudo-stealth peer-to-peer insurer Lemonade.
First, the company caught everyone’s attention with a $13 million seed round (which is significantly higher than usually associated with a pre-revenue, no-customer first raise.)
Then, the company announced a list of high profile reinsurers lined up to back the business when it launches later this year. The latest news is the announcement that the company had hired a chief behavioral officer in guru Dan Ariely.
There’s much speculation about what they’re going to do when they go live, but we’ll just have to wait and see on this one.
In the meantime, I’ve been drawn to a new wave of P2P insurers. Some on the blockchain, some using Bitcoin and all based on a self-governing, peer-to-peer network model.
The Next Wave of Peer-to-Peer Insurance is “Self-Governing”
The first wave is based on a distribution model where "friends and family" risk pools self-insured each other's deductibles to lower premiums.
Then we saw the carrier model, wave 2. Here, the pools are the primary bearers of risk, and they share in any retained premiums not paid out in claims.
Wave 3 is the self-governing model, A back-to-the-future model that takes us further toward a mutual insurance than we’ve seen to-date.
To find out more, I Skyped with Alex Paperno, the co-founder of Teambrella, the Russian InsurTech that uses Bitcoin to hold client money.
This article appeared in The Digital Insurer.
The first wave is based on a distribution model where "friends and family" risk pools self-insured each other's deductibles to lower premiums.
Then we saw the carrier model, wave 2. Here, the pools are the primary bearers of risk, and they share in any retained premiums not paid out in claims.
Wave 3 is the self-governing model, A back-to-the-future model that takes us further toward a mutual insurance than we’ve seen to-date.
To find out more, I Skyped with Alex Paperno, the co-founder of Teambrella, the Russian InsurTech that uses Bitcoin to hold client money.
This article appeared in The Digital Insurer.
