Naked, an insuretech startup set to launch in South Africa in the first quarter of 2018 has received funding through a R20 million investment from
Hollard and Yellowwoods, a private investment group with interests in insurance ventures around the world, including Hollard.
Naked aims to transform the insurance business model to give customers a faster, fairer and more flexible insurance experience. It’s a new generation insuretech business, on a mission to build insurance that is effortless, fair and transparent.
Naked was founded by respected actuaries Alex Thomson and Sumarié Greybe, formerly partners in EY’s insurance advisory business, spent the last decade advising many of South Africa’s largest insurance groups.
“Our work revealed the many very real reasons a typical insurer can’t deliver insurance that’s appropriate for the times we’re in. The only way to do things differently was to get out of the system, start from scratch, and build a business model and technology to deliver a new generation of insurance,” says Thomson. “It is time for insurance to adapt to current times, technology, and social standards, and offer the kind of transparency and trust that consumers expect from a financial services provider.”
Naked Insurance will have absolute customer empowerment and control at the centre of everything it does. The only thing it will retain from the existing insurance model is that its customers are covered. Everything else will be different.
“The insurance industry is one of the business sectors that is undoubtedly facing digital disruption. Hollard was built on the belief that there’s always a better way, so we not only embrace the change, but fully support Naked’s intention to bring unprecedented levels of transparency to the insurance environment,” says Heidi Brauer, CMO at Hollard Insurance.
Naked also revealed that it has appointed outgoing Hollard group CEO Nic Kohler to its board of directors.
