Press Release
16 March 2018, New Zealand New Zealand InsurTech start-up, Vallum, was one of 25 international early-stage businesses chosen to pitch at the Global
InsurTech Roadshow, which was held in Frankfurt, Germany last week.The prestigious Goethe Business School organised the
event in cooperation with InsurTech Asia.
Vallum received excellent feedback from its pitch.
Co-founder and CEO, Kai Dwyer, a fluent German speaker, represented Vallum at the event. It was also an opportunity to
form partnerships with leading companies in the sector such as Munich Re and to progress Vallum’s development.
“Demonstrating Vallum’s improved distribution model and unique customer journey at Global InsurTech provided a great
opportunity to develop new business partnerships”, says Dwyer, who is a 30-year insurance industry veteran. “Contacts
made at events of this calibre have the potential to accelerate the company’s planned expansion into offshore markets,”
he says.
“Frankfurt was a fantastic opportunity to validate our digital platform solution in front of an audience well aware of
the problems facing the global insurance industry”, says Vallum’s co-founder and Head of Strategy, Ben Northrop.
Dwyer adds: “The team has put a lot of time and smarts into improving the end-to-end customer journey. We are equally
happy with the the gains in efficiencies and new insights for our insurer partners.”
“Our early goals were to help improve policy accuracy and reduce the risk of fraud. Through a mixture of design, digital
and data, we have achieved these,” he says. “These improvements are essential if insurers are going to be able to invest
in and manage new services and changes in traditional models.”
Vallum has developed a faster, easier, data rich and pure digital way to match people with policies and explain them in
plain English.The process is also efficient and transparent.
“An efficient and transparent model for delivering insurance will provide a relevant and convenient user experience and
enhance customers’ understanding of their risk exposures,” says Northrop.
The solution means that the efficiency gains achieved across the value chain are available to customers and will support
the reinvestment of any savings achieved into closing these protection gaps.
This “protection gap” puts communities at risk of business failure if a loss happens.
“SMEs are frequently underinsured due to a poor understanding of risks. The costs for insurers to underwrite and sell
cover to SME’s in a traditional linear distribution model are excessively high. That’s why Vallum’s solution works so
well,” explains Northrop.
The new business partners, Dwyer and Northrop, are aligned in their views on the problems and ideal solutions for
insurance supply. “The industry doesn’t need disrupting,” says Northrop. “It’s been operational and generally paying out
on claims for thousands of years. It just needs a bit of modernising. A digital makeover of sorts.”
Prior to co-founding Vallum, Dwyer was in charge of the New Zealand division of global Insurance giant, Zurich. Over the
last 20 years Northrop has founded, and managed several online and digital businesses. Most recently he exited Run The
Red, an enterperise messaging company, to mobile payments company Pushpay (NZX:PPH), based in the US.
The winner of the pitch competition (https:nect.com) is from Germany and provides a secure, compliant site over which
all customers can make payments to insurance companies
About Vallum:
Vallum is a digital company that focuses on the insurance market. It is a customer-centric, forward-thinking,
trustworthy, data-focused company that employs the most up-to-date technology.
Vallum uses the latest in data science, both mobile and web technologies, to make decisions. This means that the
customer is able to get the best insurance protection at the best price.
The customer will also benefit from Vallum being kiwi-owned with a local support team who are available 24x7.
Go to www.vallum.insure