Our group of delegates from the NHIC before the start of the visit.

Last week Insider London had the pleasure to take a group from South Korea to visit Kasko, an InsurTech start-up.

Our visitors were all from the National Health Insurance Corporation (NHIC) of South Korea. The NHIC is a not-for-profit public organization, providing universal health coverage for approximately 96.3% of Korean citizens. The health system in South Korea differs slightly from the NHS in the UK. The South Korea health system enrols all citizens automatically and a monthly payment is made based on household income. Nonetheless, exactly the same services are provided to all people, regardless of income.

Kasko does work with the health system but not exclusively. Kasko designs, distributes and runs digital insurance products for any distribution channel. Their main aim is to enable insurers to keep pace with the market. They can launch a new insurance product in 4 weeks and use the Amazon cloud service. Kasko was founded in 2017 and in the last two years have established a presence in five countries and currently work with 15 insurers. So far they have launched 235 products.

We were delighted to have two representatives from this exciting start-up. Matthew Wardle is the CTO and co-founder. He has amassed over 10 years in tech start-ups and was joined by Sergej Tolz, the Chief Operating Officer. They offered an excellent overview of the company and then conducted an engrossing Q and A via Phillip, our wonderful interpreter.

Kasko CTO Matthew Wardle and COO Sergej Tolz presenting to the group

The delegates from NHIC all had technical backgrounds and so really put Matthew and Sergej through their paces, but the guys were more than up for it and as a result it was an engaging session as more detail was uncovered about Kasko’s guiding principles and the technology they utilise.

The UK has undoubtedly taken a leading role in the world of FinTech and it has been argued that insurance companies have lagged behind in terms of bringing technology into their business models. This appears to be changing as insurance companies increasingly accept that dynamic start-ups, such as Kasko, can offer aspects of expertise that it may be difficult to develop within the traditional insurance organisations.

The delegates listening to the presentation

This business visit felt like a meeting of minds something that we always strive to accomplish at Insider London. Please take the time to have a look at our website to see the types of business visits we offer or contact us at contact@insider-london to discuss your particular needs.