Change the Belief of "Insurance is Sold, Not Bought"

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What were the biggest opportunities and trends you saw in the market that influenced the decision to build justInCase?

Japan is the second largest insurance market in the world and its size is much bigger than most of the European countries, say 2x of Germany’s size in terms of total premiums. However, back then or even now, there have been only less than 10 insurtech companies, compared to over 130 in Germany. The development of insurance technology in Japan has been lagging behind and there is an increasing number of overseas insurtech startups targeting Japan. Instead of relying on imported technology, I strongly believe that Japan has the potential to build its own technology base which fits the local market.

Given the continuous rising trend of the use of smartphones, new or used, as well as the push for turning into a cashless society from Japanese government, justInCase launched its first product which was the smartphone insurance in 2018. Not only was it the first insurance in Japan which can be enrolled, managed and claimed through mobile app, it is also embedded AI-based technology which is applied to analyze actions that may cause smartphone damages and reflect the corresponding risk by scoring. The higher the score user has, the higher premium discount they can enjoy in the following contract period given no claims reported in the current contract period.

The development of insurance technology in Japan has been lagging behind and there is an increasing number of overseas insurtech startups targeting Japan.

Kazuya Hata, Founder & CEO of JustInCase

You recently announced a partnership with Dai-ichi Life. Furthermore, you announced to provide API for Leisure Insurance on Dai-ichi Life’s Web Application. Can you tell a bit more about this new partnership?

We have started our partnership with Dai-ichi Life since mid-August 2019. We provide insurance API for Dai-ichi Life to offer our on-demand Leisure Insurance on its web application named Snap Insurance. The customers can easily sign up the insurance through their mobile devices just ahead of their leisure activities. The sign up process is short and simple with a chatbot. The customers tell us the leisure activities, such as hiking, surfing, golf and so forth, they are going to do and recommended insurance plans are offered accordingly. The insurance period can be as short as one day. Once joined, the customers can share the details of their insurance with their friends to be insured together and fully enjoy the leisure activities. In the future, we are looking to enable customers to pay premiums and receive claims payment in the form of e-money.

This year you have expanded into new insurance areas, but are you also planning on expanding into other APAC regions in the future? Which regions are most interesting to you?

While we will continue to focus on expanding our business in Japan, we also start to explore opportunities in other Asia Pacific regions, particularly HongKong, Taiwan and South Korea, where we see similarities between these countries and Japan in terms of insurance laws and regulations, as well as characteristics of insurance markets. We look for potential business partnerships to penetrate into the markets through B2B2C business model.

To build a successful insurtech business, a new perspective needs to be brought and is impactful enough to make positive changes to the societies.

Kazuya Hata, Founder & CEO of JustInCase

What are some reasons why justInCase has become a success in Japan? What advice would you give to people that want to build an insurtech business?

A clear vision is essential. justInCase envisions to provide insurance products and insurance-related service that has yet to exist in the market through the use of innovative technologies. With this vision in mind, we differentiate ourselves by being a full-stack insurer, giving us flexibility to develop innovative insurance products on our own, rather than being confined to be a technology provider.

To build a successful insurtech business, a new perspective needs to be brought and is  impactful enough to make positive changes to the societies.

Additionally, we have founded a sister company, justInCaseTechnologies, that focuses providing insurance related tech service to corporates including insurers. justInCaseTechnologies has already played important role in the earlier mentioned Daiichi-life case.

What are you most passionate about in this industry? How would you like to see justInCase grow?

I am most passionate about changing the deep-rooted mindset of “Insurance is sold, not bought”. justInCase is here to make insurance more “friendly”, and reshape insurance to be a solution that creates new values to help reduce risks, rather than to hedge high risks. For example, selling insurance to high-risk group such as Diabetes patients and motivate them through dynamic pricing based on how they manage their lifestyles to improve health.

I do not like to complete. I strongly believe that one needs to keep providing something new that has new value to the users. justIncase, together with justInCaseTechnologies, will always try to sail in the blue ocean rather than swimming in the red ocean.

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Bradley Collins

Bradley Collins