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“It doesn’t always have to stay the same”

Désirée Mettraux, CEO Creadi
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"It doesn't always have to stay the same"

08.01.2019

Désirée Mettraux has been the CEO of Creadi since 2016. The Pax spin-off has developed the Simpego online insurance platform. The insurance expert is confident that the industry will profit if it opens itself up to partners. The aim is to make insurance fun.

Désirée Mettraux, CEO Creadi
Désirée Mettraux, CEO Creadi

BaselArea.swiss: Frau Mettraux, what does insurance mean to you?

Désirée Mettraux: For many people, insurance is a boring and complicated topic. I associate insurance with freedom. I want to make insurance fun.

The Pax spin-off was founded in 2016. What has changed since then?

We discarded many of our original ideas. A great deal of progress and development is taking place in the InsurTech market, with a lot of money being invested throughout Europe. We are also seeing which models don’t work in the B2C market. We are critical with ourselves and question our actions regularly. Simpego – our online platform for insurance companies – was developed from a test phase in which we tried out many things.

Creadi is financed by Pax, right?

Exactly. Agile spin-offs are the ideal learning environment for large parent companies. At the same time, they are great for attracting talent. With Simpego, we launched the first native app on the Swiss market in which insurance policies can be taken out “on the go”. Not every insurance company would be able to get an app such as this off the ground so quickly. However, we have been able to work together with a major insurance provider to test how its product works on the platform. Everyone will benefit from the insights gained as part of this test.

How much does the Swiss insurance industry still have to learn in the field of InsurTech?

With 12 percent of insurance policies taken out online, Switzerland is lagging far behind other European countries. This compares with over 30 percent in Germany. Making up this shortfall will not be simple.

Why?

If society is not yet ready to utilise these offerings, it would not make sense for an insurance company to make its products available digitally. Our society still prefers to go down the traditional route with insurance advisors.

Creadi is setting out to turn this model upside down. This might not please everyone.

There have been pioneers who have forced themselves onto the market while not making themselves popular in the process. However, this does the market no harm. When a change is introduced or an innovation is developed, everyone has to respond accordingly. Ultimately, this benefits consumers.

It is obvious that many people trust insurance brokers who can explain the policies in layman terms. How do you develop a sense of trust with an app?

Trust and brand perception are our greatest challenges. Of course, the personal contact that some customers have enjoyed with their insurance agents for decades cannot simply be forgotten. That’s why we offer our customers the possibility of engaging in live chat or of receiving advice by telephone.

Could this be the solution?

In my opinion, we need to shift our focus elsewhere. While most insurance products that don’t deal with the complex area of pensions are standard and no-one is reinventing the wheel when it comes to personal liability insurance, Mobiliar agents only sell their own products, which may not necessarily be what the customer is looking for. We want to solve this problem and offer a different service. Customers should be able to choose with which provider they take out insurance policies online and whether they want to make use of advice. With us, you can take out an insurance policy in a minute, without any paperwork at all.

What feedback have you received from other insurance providers?

There are companies that want nothing to do with InsurTech companies, as they don’t want to weaken their own sales channels. However, there are now an increasing number of insurance providers who are receptive to digitisation issues and want to try out new things. We are, in principle, open to every new partner. I am very much in favour of the whole industry opening up and working together as part of a common ecosystem.

It sounds like a great idea…

… but things are a little different in reality. That’s why we are trying to bring together different providers on our marketplace. It doesn’t always have to stay the same.

What role is digitisation playing in the industry?

Any companies that still carry out manual processes electronically have not yet embraced digitisation. For me, digitisation is an attitude and a matter of placing the customer at the centre of everything we do. Many companies adopt an inside-out approach rather than one looking from the outside in. There’s still a lot to be done in this respect. We all – including insurance providers – need a strategy for a digital world. Who would have thought twelve years ago that we would be buying our shoes and clothes almost exclusively online? Perhaps we will also reach this point with insurance someday.

Do insurance products also need to be modernised and brought in line with the times?

Yes, of course. The younger generation of customers are taking an increasingly hybrid approach to purchases. They buy M-Budget cottage cheese and at the same time FineFood olive oil. We are also seeing this in terms of insurance. While it should be clear to everyone that 25-year-olds have no need for CHF 5,000 of frozen food cover in their household insurance, this item is still a standard component of many household insurance policies. However, if you live in a cheaply furnished shared apartment, for example, you might need an insurance policy to cover a bicycle worth CHF 4,000 or your mobile phone and laptop. Many insurance policies no longer match up with our lifestyles, especially in urban regions.

Another problem is the image.

Insurance companies have the reputation of always wanting to sell you something. Here at Creadi, we want to change this image and create a sense of transparency. If we don’t have the right offering for somebody, we tell them this and point them towards products that suit them better. We also don’t offer long-term contracts; everything is arranged on a short-term basis.

Creadi was presented with the DIAmond Award last year. Congratulations, albeit belatedly!

Thank you. We have programmed the Simpego Snap vehicle registration document scanner. It takes a photo of the vehicle registration document and processes it using image processing before the program subsequently makes an appropriate offer for the type of vehicle. This program is based on a clever algorithm that tells you the types of vehicle coverage available, depending on the model, category and year of registration. This allows customers to take out vehicle insurance in one minute flat. The program is designed for mobile devices, as the vehicle registration document is usually stored in a vehicle’s glove compartment. I think products such as these are great, as they make life simpler.

What do awards such as this one mean to you?

It was important for us that the award validated our product in front of over 1,000 people from the industry. We have proven and confirmed in our industry that we are on the right track. This is a very valuable proposition and facilitates access to other partners. Our development and performance show that we are much more than just an insurance broker.

There are 15 people working at Creadi at the moment. How easy was it to bring new people into the company?

Basel is a difficult place in which to set up a technology startup. Despite this, we made a conscious decision to be based in Basel. Some of our employees moved here especially for us. Basel is certainly an attractive location that has a great deal to offer in terms of culture and infrastructure. The city also has an international flair. Nevertheless, it is of compact size and our employees are able to find affordable housing.

About Désirée Mettraux

Désirée Mettraux has been the CEO of Creadi since 2016. Prior to this, she worked at Pax. She is also the Co-Founder and CEO of Mycamper.ch. The insurance specialist also volunteers as a mentor for the New Venture Assessment of BaselArea.swiss, where she provides consulting services for startups.

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