In an industry where many incumbents move at a lethargic pace, the recent partnership between InsurTech Kanguro, and Cloud Insurance represents a new era in the industry: one of dynamism and innovation.
Kanguro launched in 2021 as the only InsurTech offering an end-to-end customer experience that is 100% bilingual (Spanish and English) and 100% digital. The company’s vision is simple: to modernise the insurance experience for Spanish-speaking Americans. Kanguro is already selling its pet insurance policies and will soon launch a renters insurance product.
The company’s co-founder, Andrés Mishaan reached out to Cloud Insurance, an end-to-end, software-as-a-service (SaaS) insurance technology developer, looking to leverage its technology. Mishaan said Kanguro was looking to both capitalise on the tech-savvy consumer looking for a digital service, and to transform the outdated and underserved pet insurance market.
Untapped potential
Nicholas Hanabergh, co-founder of Kanguro, noted that as of 2020 there were roughly 63 million US Hispanics, which is about 20% of the population. Hispanics are the single largest and highest-spending minority group in the US, yet continue to be underserved.
Moreover, as of 2022 there are roughly 160 million pets in the US and only 4.4 million of them are insured. “Two out of every three homes in the US have a pet and we estimate that approximately 30 million of those pets belong to Spanish-speaking Americans. And it’s an industry that is growing at 25-35% year-over-year. This is an underserved target audience with a lot of white space.
The potential is two-fold. Not only is the Latin American community underserved, Hanabergh continued, but the pet insurance market is also untapped; there is a lot of room to grow. “The Spanish-speaking American tends to be forgotten. It’s the combination and intersection of these two things, which makes our product so attractive.”
Kanguro is uniquely positioned to fill this gap. Mishaan explained that both he and fellow founder Hanabergh are both pet parents from Latin America, with extensive backgrounds in insurance, finance and technology in the US market. “It was a great synergy to have this opportunity and create our first product: pet insurance for the US Spanish-speaking American.”
What makes Kanguro especially unique in the market, Hanabergh said, is that it is the only MGA in the space that offers a front-to-back user experience in Spanish, including customer service, policy documents and more.
The partnership: the beginnings
Recognising the wealth of opportunity in the market, Mishaan said Kanguro was looking for speed and quality in a tech partnership. “We wanted a quick go-to-market opportunity for our pet offering. Using a modular software-as-a-service would really allow us to integrate all of our moving parts of our tech ecosystem… Speed and quality was something we were looking to solve with Cloud Insurance.”
The InsurTech had a clear idea of what it was looking for in a SaaS provider, and Cloud Insurance quickly emerged as the ideal partner. Hanabergh said, “We spoke to a lot of potential partners, and Cloud Insurance in particular was making some noise in the space… We were blown away by the simplicity, yet sophistication of the product, as well as the customer retention, especially for a company that’s new in this space. We are really excited to partner with them.”
Mishaan echoed this, saying that it was the modern architecture of Cloud Insurance’s software that really attracted them. “Nowadays, if you want to create a business that’s heavily dependent on technology, you have to be aware that you can’t do everything perfectly yourself, or you’re not really the expert in x or y. So, what you look to do is integrate with those experts and form a complete ecosystem to build the product stack where you are benefitting from everyone’s expertise.”
From Cloud Insurance’s perspective, Ryan Phillips, senior project manager said he connected with Mishaan and Hanabergh quickly and understood their vision. “We work very well together, but we also align business-wise. They want speed to market, they want things to work smoothly and to get their app/website working in sync for their customers. Our aim is to provide this service for them.”
Skyrocketing demand
Not only is there vast untapped potential in serving the Latin American community in the US, but the pet insurance industry in itself has taken off as of late, particularly in the US.
Part of this is owed to the “puppy pandemic”, the rise of pet ownership during the lockdown or semi-lockdown months in which people found themselves spending a lot more time at home. Mishaan said the pandemic had an accelerating effect on pet ownership, “Dogs [and cats] are great company. When everybody was locked up and working from home, many people found comfort in this and started treating them like part of the family.”
Indeed, owning a pet is an emotional attachment. Mishaan himself is a “dog parent” and considers his dog another family member. Consequently, this also means “pet parents”, as they are now called, are more willing to spend on their valued family members. “We’ve also seen an increase in demand for organic pet treats, organic food, new toys coming out and on-demand vet Zoom calls. The space has really skyrocketed vertically,” Mishaan added.
Big ambitions
From the Cloud Insurance side, Mariia Shvets, head of marketing, echoed Mishaan’s observations about the pet insurance market. She said they have also witnessed the number of pet parents increasing, particularly in the US. Thus, it is an opportunity Cloud Insurance couldn’t miss.
Uy Nguyen, sales executive at Cloud Insurance, said he was enthusiastic and excited about the partnership and breaking into the US market. “We are a global company that already built a presence throughout Europe, the US, New Zealand, and South Africa. This partnership with Kanguro represents a big stepping stone for us to step into the US market with a new pet product.”
Not only did this partnership represent opportunities for both companies, but also seemed to be a perfect match in attitudes and ethos as well.
Shvets said, “We are as ambitious as they are. It is the perfect fit, not only from the perspective of the problem and the solution, but also in terms of ambitions, culture, and the way of working. We are happy the relationship is so smooth, and we will be working hard to succeed together.”
The partnership has already bore fruits. Hanabergh said both teams are proud of the result so far, “We took what was a relatively complex pricing and rating matrix, the kind of actuarial boring insurance aspect, to something that is fun and dynamic, where a consumer only has to answer eight questions, in something like 15 clicks, and have a fully issued pet insurance product. We couldn’t have done that without the flexibility that Cloud Insurance offered. It’s a very complicated product sold in a very simplistic manner.”
It seems the journey of Cloud Insurance and Kanguro’s fruitful relationship will not end here. Cloud Insurance’s Shvets said there are already plans in the pipeline to expand across more states in the US.
Cloud Insurance’s Phillips explained that once the product launches in Florida, Kanguro will be well-positioned to roll-out a presence across many more states. The key infrastructure of the product is all ready to go, “In a country like America, with 50 states, if Kanguro explodes and needs to go live in all 50 states, we can match them very quickly.” This is testament to not only an attractive product but a dynamic and innovative partnership with a clear vision.
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