Insuretech Connect LATAM recently took place on April 24-26 in Miami, FL. ITC is a gathering of insurtech entrepreneurs, investors, and insurance industry professionals who are focused on the growing market in Latin America. Members of the insurtech industry met to network, discover new business partners, create new opportunities, learn about up and coming technologies, and be a part of the innovation in Latin America.
Given the high growth of insurtech activity in Latin America, ITC decided to create a focused ITC specifically tailored to this dynamic market. Here are a few insights I took from the conference.
LATAM tech is expanding
The entire focus of the conference was to allow foreign and domestic insurance companies and brands to find exciting technologies that can enable digital growth. Part of that growth includes exposing US companies and investors to the increasing LATAM insurtech ecosystem. Several countries were strongly represented at ITC, including Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Argentina, Ecuador, Panama, Peru, and Colombia. It was a great way for many US companies to see how vibrant the LATAM market is first hand.
A focus on distribution
Organizations in attendance were interested in learning about technology that would allow them to maximize direct to consumer experiences. And there was lots of interest in understanding new and innovative ways to create digital sales. Many speakers discussed how to boost customer acquisition, with embedded insurance being a core part of the strategy that enables new distribution channels.
Attendees were also engrossed in learning about how to enable brokers to sell, service, and better manage their clients more effectively. Some of these markets are very reliant on the traditional broker-intermediated model, so there is ongoing interest in technology to help access the direct to consumer experience in new and efficient ways.
Banks and retailers are known for having strong distribution activity with the use of mobile applications and customer online portals. But, there were three key takeaways that resonated throughout the conference related to improving distribution capabilities. These steps are pretty straightforward, but often forgotten when trying to get to market quickly.
Be customer centric
The focus should alway be on the customer experience in order to differentiate your business from competitors. The customer experience needs to be frictionless and easy to understand in order to maintain customer retention and grow sales.
Be agnostic
Technology needs to be agnostic. In order to enable expansion into new markets, think of how you can create new avenues – which likely means supporting a variety of different vendors, languages, and even other products. The only way to truly do this is with a product agnostic approach.
Be inclusive
Include everyone in your conversations with all aspects of the business. To better understand the needs of the customers, it helps to talk to engineers, claims, services – not just the sales teams. Those close to the products and services are very important pillars in conversations and can have a direct impact on distribution.
Insurtech in LATAM is at an exciting stage in the market. As of 2020, the insurtech industry accounted for 40% of total investments in Latin America and continues to grow today. As the innovation in embedded insurance scales to meet customer needs, there is likely more to come in the advancement of insurtech. I’m looking forward to attending ITC Asia later this month and ITC Las Vegas in October to keep these conversations going.
