Tell us about your journey, and your current role
I always wanted to be in the tech industry, and to do something that contributed to the greater good of the world, but I didn’t expect it to be in financial services – even though both my parents were accountants! Then, early on in my career, I joined an IT systems provider and had a focus on financial services. The complexity of financial businesses and the systems they needed to operate drew me in – I felt there must be a way to simplify the technical side of financial services.
I’ve now had 25 years in the financial technology industry, and I’ve been on an exhilarating journey- driven by a fascination for technology and its impact on the world.
In 2017, I founded FintechOS, with the mission to make fintech innovation available to every company. As the CEO of FintechOS, my passion lies in simplifying financial technology and making fintech innovation accessible to every company. Empowering banks and insurers with cutting-edge solutions and shaping the future of financial technology excites me greatly.
You’re an entrepreneur at heart with several startups behind you – so, how did you enter the insurance space? What’s the story there?
I’ve founded and scaled several tech firms, which now serve Fortune 500 customers in 30 international markets. As an entrepreneur, I was naturally drawn to exploring new frontiers and industries with untapped potential. The insurance space piqued my interest as I witnessed the complexity of insurance businesses and the systems they relied on.
I founded FintechOS with the mission to make fintech innovation available to all companies, focusing initially on those in the insurance and banking sectors. I realised that FintechOS could revolutionise the insurance industry by allowing companies to rapidly launch digital products and journeys, letting them define, distribute, service, and update insurance products across any line of business without having to wait on an IT or vendor roadmap. This journey into the insurance space has been incredibly rewarding, as we continue to embrace challenges and drive innovation forward in partnership with our customers.
Why does the insurance industry need a company like FintechOS? What differentiates it from the rest of the market contenders?
The insurance sector has been slower to embrace change compared to banking. However, consumers are now demanding personalised digital products, services, and experiences from their insurance providers. To retain customers, established insurers must cater to their customers’ specific coverage needs. Unfortunately, challenges such as inflexible siloed systems, scattered data, and a lack of technology expertise can make this task seem impossible.
Rather than opting for a complex and expensive replacement of their core systems, which often takes years to yield a return on investment, FintechOS’s fintech enablement platform offers a solution. It allows insurers to unlock their siloed data and add new digital products and journeys to their existing offerings without disrupting their operations and infrastructure.
By integrating with existing systems, the FintechOS platform decouples product and experience innovation from existing legacy or inflexible core systems by providing a no-code/low-code product factory for business users. That way, they can define, distribute, service and update digital products and journeys quickly without having to wait on IT or a vendor roadmap. Our approach is revolutionary and has seen FintechOS attract a variety of innovative insurers looking for the tools they need to grow their share of wallet and decrease cost ratios.
There are a lot of market challenges right now in the insurance space – from your perspective, what strategies can companies employ to create better resilience?
Innovation is key to the survival of insurers. Those that figure out how to continuously innovate to keep pace with changing customer expectations will survive and thrive – those that don’t will be counted amongst the irrelevant brands. The challenge is that while most incumbent insurers need to modernise their IT systems to be able to innovate at speed, they can’t afford to risk millions and slash the brakes on innovation for years. Innovation can’t be done at the expense of creating even more technical debt. Insurers that find a way to keep both product innovation and core system modernisation on their agenda, will be the most successful.
How do you see the insurance industry developing over the next few years – what are the trends that will drive change?
The insurance industry will continue undergoing significant transformation over the next few years, driven by technological advancements and changing customer preferences.
Personalisation will continue to be a key driver for customers. Insurers will need to continue enhancing their digital capabilities to offer personalised propositions., which requires access to data. Being a heavily disintermediated business, with multiple stakeholders, getting access to unified, trustworthy customer data is particularly hard. To overcome that, we’ll see more and more insurers resorting to insurtechs and other external data providers, telematics and IoT devices to get real time insights into customer behavior, lifestyle and preferences.
Moreover, the industry will need to adapt to changing risk landscapes due to emerging risks such as pandemics, extreme weather events or cyber threats. Again, access to and use of data & insights will be critical for insurers to make good decisions. As technologies such as AI, data analytics and predictive modelling evolve, insurers will more and more make use of them to underwrite and assess risk.
As a Founder and CEO, what traits do you think are most important when it comes to effective leadership during difficult times?
As a Founder and CEO, I believe effective leadership during difficult times requires resilience and a clear vision. These traits inspire teams to adapt and overcome challenges while fostering trust and stronger relationships with stakeholders. Moreover, while the insurance business is very technical, it’s all about people and having empathy. You need to understand how people will be impacted by your products and know how to create compelling experiences for them.
What’s new on the horizon for FintechOS over the next 12 to 18 months?
We have exciting plans on the horizon, starting with our next platform release, launching later this year, which will include new capabilities to enable anyone – regardless of their technical skillsets – to define digital insurance products and journeys. We are also building generative AI capabilities into our platform, further simplifying how insurance products are defined, distributed, and serviced.
We’ve been working diligently to build strong partnerships, and now we’re seeing the results, with over 50 enterprise customers using our technology platform to launch innovative banking and insurance products. We will continue to grow our business in Europe. Our expansion into the US market is also gaining momentum and will be a significant growth market for us.
What inspires you today in Insurtech?
Overall, insurtech’s ability to blend technology, innovation, and customer-centricity sparks inspiration by reshaping an industry that has traditionally been perceived as conservative and bureaucratic. As insurtech continues to evolve, it holds the potential to transform the insurance landscape and create a positive impact on individuals, businesses, and society as a whole.
When I talk about our insurance customers, as well as their end customers, I am inspired to continue to innovate and deliver the best products and services to serve their needs.
Interview by Joanna England
Joanna England is an award-winning journalist and the Editor-in-Chief for Insurtech Insights. She has worked for 25 years in both the consumer and business space, and also spent 15 years in the Middle East, on national newspapers as well as leading events and lifestyle publications. Prior to Insurtech Insights, Joanna was the Editor-in-Chief for Fintech Magazine and Insurtech Digital. She was also listed by MPVR as one of the Top 30 journalist in Fintech and Insurtech in 2023.
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