Cloud Insurance: 3 New Markets in Less Than a Year
At Cloud Insurance, we’re happy to announce that our international expansion is at its active phase despite the COVID-19. In less than a year, we successfully entered the UK, Finnish, and South African markets.
With an existing user base in 20 countries on five continents, we’ve recently introduced our international partner program and set the goal to become a leading global provider within our prioritized insurance verticals (health/wellbeing, pet, dental, income/payment protection and travel).
This vertical-specific approach allows us to set up continuous product innovation, grow our client base globally (the majority of our current users are located in the USA, Nordics and Europe), and reach more than 100% yearly revenue growth.
Axel Sjøstedt, Co-founder of Cloud Insurance, commented: "We're partly opportunistic and partly strategic when it comes to new verticals and markets. In general, we do tend to like the ones where we can see growth, where the volumes are high, and where the benefits of digital distribution are obvious."
Expansion to the UK
We had initially planned to move into the UK in March 2020, but due to the strict lockdown, our team stalled the launch to better position the brand. When in August the situation improved, we went ahead and established our office in London.
Tim Nguyen, CCO of Cloud Insurance, said, "It's been more challenging than expected, but at the same time, I’d say that we've gained experience and used the time efficiently. We stuck to the plan and, over the past 11 months, engaged with several well-established players in the market, built a solid pipeline, increased our awareness and interest within the market."
Mariia Shvets, Digital Marketing Manager at Cloud Insurance, commented, "Having the challenge of the pandemic actually helped us become stronger as an organization. We realized that due to the Covid-19, our original go-to-market strategy needed some adjustment. Though it took some time to plan the transition from on-site events and meetings, we came up with a new plan and ended up happy with the opportunities arising from it."
Cloud Insurance in Finland
At the beginning of 2021, we entered the Finnish market by implementing two new insurance providers that came as a referral from our existing customers. The projects covered end-to-end solutions for life, disability, and STIP (short-term income protection) insurance products. And as a result, we delivered scalable insurance software and introduced new integrations with local payment, authentication, and electronic signature providers. In addition, our tech team executed an advanced pricing matrix and underwriting functionality.
Entering South Africa
Later in June, we signed our first South African customer through a recent partnership with Kinga Insurance.
We first engaged with Kinga Insurance in 2018. At that time, the company was looking to become the leading insurance provider in South Africa and was seeking technology to support this goal. This is where we came in. Once we’ve finalized our Partner Program, and a lot of prospects cropped up in Africa, our cooperation with Kinga Insurance began and quickly brought its first results.
Currently Kinga Insurance is running all the sales operations for Cloud Insurance in the African region.
"On the way to our global expansion, we dedicate an essential role to distribution through partners. To succeed in a market that is as large and different as the African, one is entirely dependent on connecting with players who have local knowledge. We get it with Kinga Insurance", says Axel Sjøstedt.
New Partner Program
Last year we launched our partner program with its three core pillars:
- Sales and referral program. Cloud Insurance seeks partners that will extend the company's presence in local markets through their existing network and promotion through their channels.
- Integration and implementation program. It revolves around onboarding the client and helping to implement the Cloud Insurance software.
- Support and operations program. It comes into play for existing customers, where Cloud Insurance continues to support them and help them meet the local customer needs.
With the Partner Program well underway, we’re in the process of identifying a new market to move into, with an ambition to establish ourselves in one or two new countries by the end of 2021.
About Cloud Insurance
Cloud Insurance is a seamless SaaS solution made by insurance experts for insurers since 2016. We feature all the aspects of your daily work and help to reduce time on managing policies, claims, financials, and reports through APIs, AI and rule-based technology. Get all the functionality in one place and at a reduced cost. Learn more about us here>>.
