Chile Insurtech Betterfly begins expansion in Latin America from Brazil

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Chilean insurtech Betterfly took a massive step towards expanding in Latin America by sealing an alliance with the insurance giant Chubb to provide new benefits through its platform to its future members in Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador, and Argentina, following its opening in Brazil a few months ago.

In this way, Betterfly’s benefits will reach millions of Chubb clients in these other countries and mark another step towards the goal of “100 million people” that the Chilean insurtech wants to insure by 2025, the company’s co-founder and CEO, Eduardo della Maggiora, told Forbes Mexico.

The goal is to reach 100 million customers by 2025. In the future, the company’s plans include expansion into Europe and the United States. One of the recent moves includes moving the headquarters to Miami, focusing on these potential new markets.

SOCIAL IMPACT INSURANCE

The insurtech, founded in 2018 by brothers Eduardo and Cristobal della Maggiora, offers a digital platform of benefits to collaborators of companies of any size, including financial and wellness education, virtual fitness, telemedicine, and mental health, and rewards the healthy habits of its members with life insurance whose coverage grows at no cost.

Betterfly integrates wellness, insurance, and social impact solutions. Focusing on businesses, insurtech offers a digital benefits subscription, which gives each employee dynamic life insurance. Coverage grows from the practice of healthy habits in their daily routine.

With the benefits, it is also possible to contribute to social actions. All the information is synchronized by smartphone and smartwatch applications. The client also has access to services such as telemedicine and online consultations with nutritionists.

A Betterfly member syncs the company’s app with other apps that measure physical activity such as Fitbit, Garmin, Google Fit or Apple Health, and with meditation, virtual fitness or gym apps, and every activity they do such as walking, running, biking, meditating or learning to save translates into more coverage on their life insurance.

Clients can also accumulate Bettercoins, virtual currencies that can be used to make donations to social entities dedicated to reforestation, food banks, or creating solutions for access to clean water.

Last week, the insurtech announced that it would use the model for the first time to channel donations to the Teletón in Chile, which has provided medical support to people with disabilities in the country for four decades.

GROWING INSURANCE OFFERINGS

Through the alliance, Chubb will become Betterfly’s preferred insurance provider as it expands internationally and will provide Betterfly membership to its policyholders.

Betterfly will offer Chubb insurance on its platform through Betterstore. “We’re going to be delivering insurance products that are going to be tailored, custodied, hyper-personalized,” della Maggiora told Forbes, explaining the deal.

“It’s a great alliance in depth of both countries and products, and one of the things about it is that through this alliance we’re going to deliver, not only the life insurance that we already deliver but other insurance products in each of the countries … (to) expand the financial protection of our customers and Chubb’s customers,” the CEO added.

With a presence in 54 countries and territories worldwide, Chubb is the world’s largest publicly traded property and liability insurance company, with revenues of nearly US$36 billion in 2020.

It provides auto, life, home, hospitalization, critical illness, among many others, and with Betterfly’s opening in Mexico, companies will test what products they can offer in each market.

“For each market and for each type (of product) we will be testing”, explained della Maggiora, “both companies will work together in these markets, on different products to see how and in what way we can reach the end consumer through something simple, accessible and digital.”

Marcos Gunn, senior vice president of Chubb Group and regional president for Latin America, added that “there is an extensive range of products that we have and the idea with this is, with the technological capacity and the UX that Betterfly has … to offer these products to the right people at the right time and through obviously a straightforward process so that customers can understand the product, which is very important so that they know what they are buying.”

“The relationship with our clients is quite distant, let’s be honest, so what we are looking for with Betterfly is to have a completely different relationship with our clients, where we give them financial protection, but we also have a relationship through those healthy habits,” Gunn added.

Three years after its foundation, the Chilean insurtech is reaching almost one million members between Chile and Brazil, the two countries where it is operating, through more than 2,500 businesses that have acquired the benefits for their employees.

Last September, Betterfly also sealed an alliance in Brazil with local insurance company Icatu, which markets the benefits offered by the insurtech in that country.

It also acquired four Chilean companies and one Brazilian company that work with high social impact products (solidarity gift cards, salary advances, simplified investments) as part of its expansion plan throughout the continent.

The Chilean company’s primary goal is to ensure 100 million people with coverage in 2025, and “this is a very relevant milestone to reach that goal … that is what moves us, that is what wakes us up every day in the morning,” said della Maggiora.

The opening in Mexico with Chubb is planned for the beginning of 2022, and the expansion process to Colombia, Ecuador, and Argentina will follow.

Betterfly currently has around 500 employees, and the co-founder estimates that the expansion could triple the number of collaborators.

THE COMPANY RAISED US$60 MILLION

The company raised US$ 60 million to start its international expansion beginning in Brazil, where it currently has 35 clients, all companies, says the manager for the Brazilian operation, Leonardo Lima. The global development started in the country because it is considered one of the most complex.

Besides the continental dimension, there are barriers such as language. Currently, in Chile, the platform has more than 2,000 business clients but does not disclose the number of users.

In Brazil, the plans vary from R$19.90 to R$29.90 per month through a partnership with Icatu. In the other Latin American countries, including Chile, Chubb was chosen as the preferred insurance provider.

The insurtech has its eye on a market with growth potential. As in Brazil, most people in Latin America do not have life insurance coverage. A 2020 study by ‘Swiss Re’ points to a US$14 trillion mortality protection gap in the region.

“Our appetite is great; as things continue to go well, there will continue to be interest from investors to put in more breath, more growth. At the moment, we are capitalized to continue in the market,” said Lima.

In September, the company announced the purchase of the Brazilian startup Xerpa, the human resources area, whose main product is Xerpay, a financial health platform. At the same time, it acquired five other startups in Chile.

The core of the platform is based on dynamic life insurance. But other products related to financial protection, for example, can be included. In Chile, Covid insurance has been launched.

The insured who gets infected receives a contribution that pays for expenses that the health plan does not cover. And for every company that takes out covid insurance, Betterfly donates covid protection for vulnerable people.

With information from Forbes and Valor