The insurtech Wopta is preparing for the new round between the phigital model, virtual customer journey and generative AI
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Among his boasts are the title of first Italian Managing General Agent in the insurtech field and the fact that he is an authorized intermediary subject to the control of IVASS (the Italian insurtech supervisory institute). For Wopta Assicurazioni, a startup, the next round of financing for millions of euros which should be completed by the summer with Banca Akros appointed as financial advisor for negotiations with institutional investors (we are currently in the short list and “due diligence” phase have been terminated), it is therefore time for a new leap forward after the 3.4 million euros raised between equity (the seed round saw CNA, KC Fin venture and some business angels and family offices among the subscribers) and financing debt.
In short, a new phase of growth, and this is how those directly involved define it, and in this case Vincenzo Macaione and Ivan Pivirotto, respectively Founder & CEO and Managing Director of the Milanese startup. “The new operation – Macaione specifically explains to Sole24ore – is the new springboard to accelerate the product development roadmap and support the double-digit increase in business. Up to now the market has responded well to our offer, rewarding our speed of execution, and we are convinced that the ease of access to the service through technology will be the winner: we do not expect the boom in online sales but to be a vehicle which supports traditional operators with the plus of a platform that makes the process of signing a policy very fast”.
The technology: cloud platform, algorithms and metaverse
The added value that Wopta intends to bring to the insurance world for the benefit of artisans, entrepreneurs (SMEs) and professionals is twofold, on the one hand involving processes and on the other the will to innovate at the product level. In the first case, the fact that the startup operators active directly in the field use a tablet to digitize the subscription of a policy in real time and eliminate the burdens (times and costs) of the traditional procedure is emblematic. In the second, multi-risk insurance solutions make the difference (the first were launched in July 2022) which offer the possibility to pay the policy in monthly installments, to take advantage of the free renewal in the event of a claim and to have the premium paid for the period of forced abstention from professional activity due to injury or illness. An open approach, that of Wopta, which is also reflected in the definition of the business model and the supporting technological infrastructure. The path chosen, as Pivirotto explains, is that of phigital, and therefore that of combining the online channel of e-commerce (which still weighs marginally, because it has just started) and that of partners and the physical network of sub-agents (the so-called “Wopters”) active throughout the national territory. The platform is completely resident in Google Cloud and the choice of the BigG cloud is mainly motivated by reasons “of scalability of the infrastructure and the consequent greater speed and cost-effectiveness in the application development phase. The entire policy management process – the manager confirms – is digitized within the platform with electronic signature and electronic payments”. A proprietary analysis algorithm is already at work to refine the proposals aimed at individual customers and the next step is to exploit the capabilities of generative artificial intelligence (experiments are underway with ChatGpt and other similar tools) to further increase the level of accuracy of the proposals and improve customer service. Finally, the startup also has the pride of being the first Italian insurtech to land in the metaverse to offer an additional experience to the customer’s (digital) journey and the intention to aim is to create a real virtual consultant who will offer the policy
The numbers, partnerships and future developments
Wopta’s reference context is mainly that of the “Non-Life” business, which in 2022 exceeded 35 billion euro, and to a lesser extent the Life sector. The volume of intermediated premiums in 2022 in just three months (commercial activity started in October) was around 1.1 million euros and the number of policyholders in the same period exceeded one thousand. A strategic component of the startup’s activity are the agreements with some top-tier insurance companies (AXA, Chubb, QBE) and partnerships at the distribution level, in which the institutional names of CNA (the National Confederation of Crafts and Small Impresa, with over one million members and 1,100 local offices) and Confprofessioni (which aggregates over 1.5 million freelancers) and that of a well-known comparison marketplace such as Facile.it, which will make specifically designed for small and medium-sized businesses. The Wopta team is made up of about 70 Wopters, including insurance specialists and employees and the goal set for the end of 2023 is essentially to complete the commercial offer on the one hand, extending the catalog with a welfare offer for companies and the implementation of a range of automotive and personal products (home, animals and health), and to further expand the distribution structure on the other, both with the increase of the Wopters network (the target is to reach 150- 200 specialists by December) and through the signing of new partnerships. And on the horizon the most ambitious step: landing abroad, starting with the main EU markets, borrowing the business model launched in Italy.
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