Cove announces Lloyd’s of London coverholder status

6th June 2018 - Auckland based insurance startup Cove has announced it is now an approved coverholder at Lloyd’s of London.

“Becoming an approved coverholder at Lloyd’s of London is a huge milestone for us. We’ve developed a platform to help us achieve Cove’s mission to make insurance simple, understandable, and digitally-led. And the coverholder structure allows us to deliver exceptional policy coverage and excellent financial strength for our customers as well.” explained CEO Andy Coon.

This arrangement enables Cove to focus on creating a great quoting, purchasing, and claims experience, and to design comprehensive insurance policies which will be 100% underwritten by certain underwriters at Lloyd’s.

“Working with Underwriters at Lloyd’s gives our customers comfort that there is a global leader in the insurance industry standing behind our policies” said CFO Brett Wilson.

Cove aims to challenge the market by building a digital-first insurance experience with a heavy focus on technology and innovation.

“Our team saw innovative digital experiences being offered to customers internationally, and we wanted to bring this refreshing approach to New Zealand. The word ‘insurance’ in New Zealand often leaves a bad taste in people’s mouths, and we want to change that.” said CPO Rob Coon.

Prior to founding Cove, Andy began his career at Sovereign, and has most recently worked at various insurance startups in Europe. Upon returning to New Zealand, Andy, along with brother Rob, joined forces with veteran financial executive Brett Wilson who has previously acted as CFO of Tower Insurance, CFO of Seniors Money International, and GM Finance at both ASB Bank and Sovereign.

Over the last 18 months Cove has been asking Kiwis what they want from insurance and building the frameworks to deliver it.

“We have spoken to hundreds of Kiwis and have built a thorough understanding of their frustrations with insurance. The team has been informed by consumer research every step of the way, and have now developed a service that we feel ticks all the boxes” explained Rob.

“Over the next 6 months our technology will roll out and become available for New Zealanders, starting with a chatbot experience in about a month. From here we will expand and launch additional channels for purchasing and managing insurance”.

“By creating an innovative service accessible from any Internet connected device, we plan to make buying, managing, and claiming from Cove a simple and refreshing process.”

Cove will offer New Zealanders a range of insurance products, including car insurance, home insurance, and contents insurance, with a staged roll-out throughout 2018.

The company is currently in private beta, and expected to enter public beta within the next month, before becoming available to all New Zealanders.

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