Coverhero launches new API, eyes US

Insurtech Coverhero has launched a new Application Programming Interface (API), is creating partnerships with marketplaces for an embedded insurance model and expects to launch in North America next year.

Sydney-based Coverhero targets gig economy workers with its income protection product HustleCover.

It was a finalist in the Excellence in Insurtech category at the FinTech Australia Finnie Awards and founder Naby Mariyam was also a finalist in the Female Fintech Leader of the Year category.

The new Coverhero technology can be integrated with most platforms, she tells insuranceNEWS.com.au.

“Now people don’t necessarily have to come to our website, they can find our product inside accounting software, or they can find it inside a marketplace. We’ve got a whole range of partners that have signed up,” Ms Mariyam said.

Coverhero recently partnered with Blys to protect income for massage therapists, and says a whole range of other marketplaces are in the pipeline for this year.

“We’re the only offer in the Australian market in the embedded insurance space in this specific product vertical. There’s no other technology that is available that does what we do,” Ms Mariyam said.

Coverhero is looking at launching in five US states next year, and has also studied Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam and Thailand as possible new markets. It closed a funding round last month and has plans for another, led by the same investors, and is adding a web3 solution and working on a blockchain product.

Ms Mariyam, who is attending the ITC conference in Las Vegas next month, says insurtech success stories such as Cover Genius remove barriers and “reduce the regulatory uphill battles”.

“Things have changed. The market has matured a lot, there are a lot more players and insurers aren’t that arrogant anymore – I’m noticing that they are more receptive to startups and they don’t see us as a threat like they initially did,” she said.

“There was a lot of head butting and now they’re more kind of like, ‘Hey, we’re all trying to make the industry better. We’re trying to create better customer service. We are all on the same team’.”