Behind the Idea: Insly

Insurance tasks such as risk analysis, underwriting, mid-term adjustments and taxation are tough for digital insurance brokers. Even more so for those using general no-code products. Automation is a must in the modern insurance world, so we spoke to Insly, an insurtech looking to help brokers overcome these challenges and better their services. 

Risto Rossar is CEO and founder of Insly, a London and Tallinn based insurtech. An insurance innovator and investor, he has been in the insurance industry for 20 years. During this time, Rossar founded five insurtech startups, including IIZI, believed to be the first digital insurance broker in world, and Insly, which builds no-code software for insurance businesses.

Speaking to The Fintech Times, Rossar explains the reasons behind the idea: 

Tell us more about your company and its offering

Insly enables MGAs and insurance companies to digitise and automate their mid and back-office operations, to streamline and optimise insurance selling and admin processes. The platform has a modular setup, spanning the entire insurance lifecycle. This means it can be scaled easily, allowing non-IT professionals to make changes without extensive IT development time or specialist skills. It also integrates seamlessly with existing IT systems, so teams only need to enter details once and apply them to all relevant documents automatically.

What problem was your company set up to solve?

I started Insly after establishing IIZI Group in 2000, one of the first digital insurance brokers in the world. While on that journey, I realised that there was a gap in the market for insurance technology that is easy for insurance companies to implement and use. This would enable them to increase efficiency, optimise customer experience, and reduce unnecessary costs.

Insurance involves numerous complex and specific processes, such as risk analysis, underwriting, mid-term adjustments and taxation. These are difficult, if not impossible, to automate using general no-code products. As Insly evolved from an insurance company, we understand the needs of MGAs and insurers and set out to build a product suite entirely tailored to how they work.

Since launch, how has your company evolved?

Initially, Insly was a SaaS solution for brokers. It has since diversified into tools for MGAs and insurance companies. All the while, developing a no-code product which is customisable and easily configurable, reducing the need for maintenance and costly development talent. This has helped us to reduce our implementation time and cost by a factor of ten.

In the last eight years, Insly has grown to a team of 100. We have offices in Tallinn (core development unit), London (HQ), Vilnius, and Warsaw. We now serve over 1,000 brokers, MGAs, and insurers, with over 15,000 users, and over €0.5billion gross premiums transacted on the platform. Customers span 52 countries around the globe, and global revenues have grown by over 30 per cent in the last year.

What has been the biggest challenge or most ‘tricky moment’ to overcome?

Our biggest challenge has been working out how to customise our software to meet each customer’s specific needs. Doing so, without losing the ‘one product’ principle, or compromising speed or software stability. It was this that led us to develop no-code software, taking a modulated approach to suit a wide variety of customer needs. We have also developed a robust process for managing customer implementation.

What are your biggest achievements or ‘proudest moment’ so far?

The biggest satisfaction for the whole team is seeing the smiles on customers’ faces when their systems go live. Then, when they start using the software and their business volumes start to grow. That gives us real validation in terms of why we do what we do.

How would you describe the culture of your company?

With two words: freedom and responsibility

To work at Insly means that you are free to build and work wherever you want and how you want. So as long as you are willing to take responsibility of your results.

What’s in store for the future?

We are onboarding new customers to our MGA platform all the time, and the business is close to breaking even, a fantastic achievement in a relatively short space of time. Currently, we are focused on product development, sales, and marketing, so we can bring our products to even more customers, and move closer to our goal of building one of the biggest insurance platforms in the world.

We have also just launched a new product which is our Insurance Broker Proposal software. We already work with brokers in Poland, Estonia, and Latvia, so this product will bring our broker expertise to a global market, building on our existing no-code foundations. It will enable brokers to digitise elements of their sales workflow such as application forms and risk surveys, streamlining their customer service, and helping clients to make the best insurance decisions.