Providing rapidly-growing companies the insurance protection they need to continue innovating and scaling their business: Assurely

The Silicon Review

The world is at the crossroads of an industrial revolution, meeting an economic downturn. Not a single industry will look the same a year from now. Insurance needs to adapt to support these changes; support the changes of its customers. With a rapidly changing landscape, leaders are emerging, inventing new ways insurance can become a significant enabler of innovation and growth for changing industries and new marketplaces. Assurely is one of those leaders.

Founded in 2016, Assurely is an insurtech giving businesses operating in changing markets the chance to thrive and survive with tailor-made, needs-based insurance policies. The company has the unique ability to create or adapt insurance to meet the customer’s actual needs in real-time, moving at the speed of innovation. Whether it’s a new digital marketplace or a new industry that has a tough time getting insurance, Assurely creates a more appropriate product and a more natural way to “buy” that product, fast. Assurely is creating solutions for those individuals and companies who move the world forward. Assurely Co-Founder, and former Founding Member at Lemonade Insurance, Ty Sagalow says it best “we are turning insurance from a necessary evil to social good.”

In conversation with David Carpentier and Ty Sagalow, Founders of Assurely

Q. What motivated you to reinvent Insurance solutions?

The biggest motivation has been the end-user. Today’s consumer is all about customization, speed, ease, and they expect information at their fingertips. From shopping trends to instant messaging, consumers want it now. Insurance is no different. Assurely is bringing the ability to adapt, instantly, to customer needs to the insurance industry. Working in the industry for a long time, we saw the problem repeat itself too many times, and instead of complaining about it, we did something about it and launched Assurely.

Q. Lack of trust is the reason why many companies don’t bother about insurance. How does your company fill this void?

In reality, the traditional insurance industry DOES want to help and support the end-user. Traditional insurance incumbents are thirsty to be able to keep up with the changes and enable business by being a trusted partner. The challenge comes back to the existing insurance model. Insurance still has a problem being agile enough to adapt to what customers actually want, do that fast, and do that in a profitable manner. Therefore, problems are created that hinder a trusting relationship. In addition, most insurance companies are, ironically, risk-adverse, making them hesitant to create new products for emerging risks and industries, the exact areas where consumers need the most protection. For Assurely, a unique selling point is our ability to adapt fast, transparently do this, and educate clients based on actual need. And we do this in those emerging areas of the economy where the reward, but also the risk, for the entrepreneur is the greatest. Being open, upfront, and clear does a lot to bridge the trust gap insurance faces today.

Q. How has Covid-19 impacted startups?

Covid-19 has indirectly created a significant opportunity for nimble companies to help change industries fast. Change certainly is needed. In a recent 500 Startups survey to investors, healthcare, remote working, and logistics companies ranked in the top three areas of interest. As innovation and entrepreneurs flock to adapt and grow these industry segments, there is a greater need for better aligned insurance protection. Assurely is that provider. It creates, builds, and adapts insurance policies to provide the necessary protection and support to help these emerging sectors operate and flourish.

Q. What are your future plans for the development of your company?

We are actively working with expansion industries and have a roadmap of partners lined up for both product expansion and greater penetration in our current market. We focus on partnerships. There is not only receptiveness but high demand for buying insurance from outside the insurance industry. We will continue to work with partners to support this evolution as it meets both their customer needs as well as supports the growth of innovative marketplaces and evolving industries. Today, we are focused domestically, but Assurely will scale internationally when the time is right.

Meet the leaders behind the success of Assurely

Assurely co-founders David Carpentier and Ty Sagalow have a long history of building new insurance-based products, catering to new types of customers, and companies working on the cusp of innovation. They were the innovators at the incumbents in their pasts, and both realized they were never going to be able to build what they really wanted in that environment.

David is an experienced insurance executive and is viewed as one of the most forward-thinking and strategic professionals in the industry. Throughout his career, David has been at the forefront of innovation, delivering products and services that are customer-centric, and flexible to adapt to market changes.

Ty is an insurance legend. Stemming from a storybook senior executive career at insurance giants such as AIG and Zurich turned founding member at InsurTech unicorn, Lemonade, Ty had the ingenuity and foresight to understand the significance of how massive changes in the economy impact risk. As he says, “I have seen this story before…” Just as the emergence of the internet created unique security risks requiring the creation of cyber insurance (a product Ty is largely credited with inventing), technology and the internet will impact the manner in which capital is raised requiring the creation not only a new type of insurance product to safeguard the risks for both the issuer and the investor but a new system of seamlessly interlacing that insurance within the online purchase environment (something Ty refined at Lemonade.)