Naked 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. The start-up aims to transform the insurance business model to give customers a faster, fairer and more flexible insurance experience.
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. They noticed how many groups are struggling to transform and stay relevant in light of rapidly evolving customer expectations, while still using outdated business models and systems.
“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’s vision fully resonates with our purpose of enabling more people to create and secure a better future”.
Naked also revealed that it has appointed outgoing Hollard Group CEO Nic Kohler to its board of directors. “Considering the Naked team’s years of first-hand experience and their sincere drive to reinvent insurance, I’m confident they will do exactly that,” Kohler says.
About Naked
Naked is a new generation insuretech business, on a mission to build insurance that is effortless, fair and transparent. For more information, visit Naked's website.
About Hollard Insurance Group
- The Hollard Insurance Group includes the Hollard Insurance Company, Hollard Life Assurance Company, and Hollard Investment Managers.
- Established in 1980, the Group provides short-term and life insurance as well as investment products to a diverse customer base including individual consumers, commercial entities, and corporate clients. It ranks among a growing number of companies advocating an inclusive growth model, measuring its social dividends aside from its shareholder contributions.
- Since inception, the partnership has been at the heart of its business model, with the group today boasting over 100 ventures across the insurance value chain. Each one demonstrates the Hollard belief that there is always a better way.
- Headquartered in the historic Villa Arcadia in Parktown, Johannesburg, the group serves over 6 million policyholders and is involved in insurance businesses in 18 countries across four continents.
- As of January 2017, The Hollard Insurance Group is operational across 7 African markets; South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Mozambique, Ghana, Lesotho, and Zambia.
About Yellowwoods
Yellowwoods is a private investments group, headquartered in Europe and active across 30 markets, with a focus on the insurance, restaurant and hospitality sectors, and primarily concentrated in South Africa, the United Kingdom and Australia. Their insurance interests in South Africa include Hollard Insurance and Clientele Limited.
Issued by:
Syreeta van Rooyen – Tribeca Public Relations
