Henrique Volpi: Kakau building a digital platform in Brazil

On this episode of Scouting For Growth, Sabine VdL talks to Henrique Volpi, one of the co-founders and the CEO of Kakau – one of the very first InsurTechs in Latin America. Kakau is an InsurTech and tech platform that delivers digital experiences while improving insurance operations and easing the delivery of complex financial services. Kakau's SaaS model is powered by machine learning and robotic process automation. Henrique is one of the co-authors of the InsurTech book and is also the co-founder and board member of the InsurTech association of Brazil. During the conversation, Sabine and Henrique discuss InsurTech in Latam and Brazil, selling insurance via the phone, Brazil's regulator approving subscription transaction models, NFT policies, and the future of tech-led business models.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Back in the day, people would question whether it was possible to sell insurance digitally. Insurance sales were only done by phone. Indeed, you could originate business via Google Adverts and so on. Still, the delivery of a fully digital experience wasn’t the case back then. So, we did the contrarian thing and went to design a digital-first platform as we knew this was a global trend. The first thing we did was to discuss the project with a very large legal forum in Brazil and asked them for their help because insurance is a regulated industry and we knew the importance of having a legal team, and we designed one of the first digital MGAs in Brazil.
• Since the beginning, we spoke to the regulator. This approach was very different from other startups that were afraid to go to Rio and speak to them. We just shot straight and said: “We want to do this. Is that legally OK? Can we move forward?” We took a different approach from the other startups. Over time the regulator told us that we could not engage with them that much. So, we went back to our legal partner and set up the first Brazilian InsurTech Association to help technology startups get access to the insight they needed to build their InsurTech right. We started with 4-5 companies and now we have more than 20 members.
• The first thing I believe we need to educate others is on finance and therefore insurance, especially in Brazil. This should be the same in South-East Asia, Africa, and Latin America as a whole. Individuals must learn how to make money and take care of their money because many people do not know. They have to learn how to lend money, they have to learn how to manage that money, and hopefully, they will learn how to save a little bit. Only later they will think about insurance. Typically, you start with lending and credit cards before going up the value chain to investments and then insurance. Insurance and InsurTech are probably 5-6 years less mature compared to FinTech in Brazil which is going very strong. 
• Don’t be afraid to pivot your business model, you’re going to pivot many, many times around your journey and you have to be aggressive in terms of technology. We’ve seen around the world many, many companies that don’t really have a good tech stack, it’s just a front-end. What’s interesting though and I’m excited about this too, is when a market player realizes that it does not need to own everything then it can consider licensing. When you license the best capabilities that are out there you have a different perspective on how you serve your customers and users. 

BEST MOMENTS

‘Even though it was very hard and there was a lot of work to do to prove the content, we proved that one can sell insurance policies digitally. Now it’s something that’s growing very fast in Brazil.’
‘We may be going through a crisis. Still, what’s happening now is very volatile. So, when growth opportunities return, the launch of digital-first businesses may return faster than a lot of people think.’
‘I’m very interested in the ramifications of cyber risk within our digital world. I think another trend we need to pay attention to is the monetization of value-added services. Some big carriers in Brazil are setting up services companies that will prevent risks from happening, especially around commercial lines.’
‘Go for it. The world needs people who have the courage to become entrepreneurs.’

ABOUT THE GUEST

Henrique Volpi is known for having a positive attitude, execution focus, and servant leadership. Committed to making a positive impact, Henrique Volpi is the co-founder of Kakau, one of the first InsurTech startups in Latin America. A technologist for the past 25 years working in leading tech companies such as Servicenow, EMC/Dell, and BMC Software. Henrique co-founded and became the president of the Brazilian Insurtech Association. He is a co-author of the Insurtech Book.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/henriquevolpi/

Kakau Technologies reduces the complexity of financial services and insurance operations through the efficient use of AI technology. By leveraging ML and RPA Kakau Tech delivers seamless SaaS solutions in Risk Model Management, NLP Claims Management, NFT Policy Management, and Churn Prediction. Kakau's technologies is a digital platform that uses artificial intelligence technology to deliver more accurate results in the insurance segment. Kakau delivers a fully digital experience seamlessly powered by machine learning across multiple product categories. The platform enables users to get insurance for various products like motorcycles, cell phones, digital devices, and bikes among others. 
Website: https://www.kakau.co/

ABOUT THE HOST

There are over 140,000 FinTech ventures out there, including FinTechs, InsurTechs, HealthTechs, and WealthTechs. And the number keeps on changing every month. One statistic remains the same: 25% of these ventures have received investment and support from the financing world. 75% of these businesses still seek financing support from institutional and corporate investors alongside value-creating commercial collaboration opportunities with Global Fortune 500. 

Through this podcast series, I would like to demystify the world of corporate venturing, including how corporations collaborate with growth ventures, how venture capitalists and corporate venture capitalists make investment and collaboration choices in ventures and give tech founders and entrepreneurs, the strategies, tactics, tools, and techniques to build, grow and scale their business by understanding how those with financing power think. So, listen in, share and comment as you see fit.

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