Germany’s leading commercial insurance platform brought four senior leaders to London with a clear plan. It left with new investor relationships, a signed AI partnership and plans to return with full management next year.
estimated annual written premium in German SME insurance
monthly active users on the Thinksurance platform
ABOUT THINKSURANCE
Germany’s leading platform for commercial insurance
Commercial insurance in Germany is still one of the largest but most undigitized corners of the market, with a current estimated market size for SME insurance of €30Bn per annum in written premium. Every business is different, and brokers can spend hours gathering risk information, comparing policies across many insurers and documenting advice before a quote goes out to a client. Underwriters at insurance carriers can spend many hours on tenders and information requests to compete and book a new policy, often working very manually to do this.
Thinksurance is changing that. From Frankfurt, it runs the digital platform that connects brokers with insurers: one place to compare commercial products, advise clients and place business across a wide range of carriers and product lines. For insurers, it is a direct low-cost digital route into the broker market, a way to find new broker channels previously unseen as well as having high-quality data analytics to understand all volume data across its product lines and broker channels in one place. Thinksurance’s platform now has over 10,000 monthly active users across the German market that consult around 25,000 commercial end customers per month.
THE OPPORTUNITY
Thinksurance set three clear goals
Partners for the path to market leadership
Thinksurance is currently growing its German broker and insurer footprint, with a clear goal: be the one-stop-shop for digital commercial insurance placement. Getting there faster means building relationships with the right investors well ahead of time and adding technology that keeps the platform in front.
Insurtech Insights had been on the team’s radar for a while. With all of its customers in Germany, London was not an obvious choice, especially prioritizing this conference time for management over core business topics like product and sales.
The Insurtech Insights executive program, which invites senior leaders to attend for the first time as guests, made it easy to put the event to the test.
growth and private equity investors met
of them new investor relationships
AI partnership signed with a company first met at the event
THE SOLUTION
Arriving with a plan
Thinksurance came with clear roles and a prepared mind:
01
Two pairs, two goals
- Timm Weitzel, CEO, and George Bartlett, CFO, focused on investors, strategic partners and corporate development.
- Patrick Loeffler, COO, and Torben Bursinski, VP Product, mapped the technology and partner landscape.
02
Meeting investors, new and familiar
The event brought many of the growth and private equity investors active in insurtech into one place. Over two days, Timm and George met eight of them. Five were existing relationships, strengthened by time face to face. Three were new. All are now part of the conversation about Thinksurance’s next stage of growth and being a part of this journey.
03
Finding the right AI partner
Patrick came looking for a partner in AI-based document analysis and data extraction, a key capability in commercial insurance, where so much information still arrives in documents and in different formats. On the floor he met Parsewise, a young company Thinksurance had not known before. The first conversation led to a contractual partnership last summer, with Parsewise’s solution now integrated into the Thinksurance platform to help automate with AI the insurer offer comparison process at high volumes.
With insurers, insurtechs and technology providers in one place, the team could also see how others are applying AI for brokers/underwriters and bring new ideas back into its product. Between investor meetings, Timm and George opened talks with new potential US and European strategic partners.
We are building the market leader in digital commercial insurance placement in Germany that rethinks the way insurance is thought with AI capabilities, Insurtech Insights put us in the room with investors, technology and strategic partners who share that ambition.
Timm Weitzel - CEO, Thinksurance
THE IMPACT
Three goals met, and a bigger presence next year
Thinksurance came to its first Insurtech Insights with three goals and met all three.
On investors, the team met eight growth and private equity investors, three of them new, building relationships that will help finance AI development and its path to market leadership.
On technology, Patrick found the AI partner he came for. The Parsewise AI partnership is now under contract and live.
On relationships, the one-to-one meetings delivered the most value. That is where the investor, partner and strategic connections now being taken forward were made.
Thinksurance will return to Insurtech Insights Europe next year as an official partner, with a bigger team. The plan builds on this year: deepen the investor relationships started in London and meet a focused list of insurance-specialist investors.
Beyond the numbers
Thinksurance came with a clear plan, split its leadership across it and spent its time on the conversations that mattered. A few days in London delivered new investor relationships, a signed AI partnership and strategic relationships for the long term. Returning next year as a partner, with twice the team, says the rest.
