InsurTech is all about using technological innovations to improve the efficiency of the insurance industry – an industry that is facing increasing disruption.
According to a recent report conducted by PwC, there is around £50 billion of potential revenue from disruption in insurance. So, with so much disruption and areas for growth, what opportunities does InsurTech present to women? We speak to one woman in the know!
Janthana Kaenprakhamroy is the CEO of InsurTech, Tapoly, winner of Insurance Provider of the Year at the British Small Business Awards 2018 and recipient of the Technological Development award at the European Business Awards 2021.
Tapoly is an award-winning digital managing general agent (MGA) for commercial lines insurance tailored to micro SMEs and freelancers. Tapoly also provides an end-to-end white labelled SaaS (software as a service) solution, utilising AI, ML and APIs to connect insurers with their distribution partners for more efficient communication, better data transfer and a seamless customer experience.
Janthana sits down with us to take a look at where she sees the sector progressing, the role in which women can play within the sector, and her career advice for those looking to get into InsurTech.
SheCanCode is a collaborative community of women in tech working together to tackle the tech gender gap.
Join our community to find a supportive network, opportunities, guidance and jobs, so you can excel in your tech career.
hello everyone and thank you for tuning
in again I am Katie batesman the content
director at chican code and today we are
going to be discussing in short Tech now
according to a recent report conducted
by PWC there is around 50 billion of
potential revenue from disruption in
insurance so with so much instruction
and areas for growth what opportunities
are available for women in in suretech
well we know someone with the answers to
that question it’s my wonderful guest
for today jansana Kam prakamrow the CEO
of tapali Welcome John farana thank you
so much for having me thank you thank
you for joining us
um so you have a lot of experience in
this area can you tell us a little bit
about yourself and your background to
begin with
Santanas background
thank you so much yes
um my name is Santana again blackham
right and I’m one of the co-founder at
Tapley we provide Technology Solutions
for insurance industry so we are you
know a typical intro Tech basically and
I’ve got my background in Investment
Bank I was trained as a chartered
accountant to start
um roughly about six years ago I
discovered a market Gap where you know I
was one of the insurance customer and
trying to find you know a kind of get
insurance for my Airbnb lifting which in
those day didn’t exist so you know like
from my Discovery I decided to set up
happily to set up the alternative
distributions and uh non-traditional
Market
What is InsurTech
all right so you so you didn’t work in
insurance and it was because you were a
customer and there was you noticed that
there was a need there correct yes oh
that is interesting
um so for those of us that don’t know
um can you explain what exactly is
insure Tech yes intro tax uh derived
from technology for insurance or
Insurance technology
um and
um that could mean anything from you
know like kind of standard API on
cloud-based to you know AI enable
solution
um many in short Tech either focus on
um you know a certain part of the
process like for example you can have in
short take the cover claims and the
writing specifically or distributions
and then you got you know kind of intro
Tech that have a pure technology that
could do end to end that could cover
end-to-end process and tackly is
basically we’ve got to Value
propositions part of what we do is pure
Tech so we provide end-to-end technology
solution and the other part we tackle
the distribution where we provide MGA
service and we basically offer
our own product range to customer
backed by some of the insurance partner
that we have that we have relationship
with
and so you must have seen quite a few
changes though um especially recently
with covid and flexible working and
there was quite a change in in the
workforce as well and you know people
starting their own businesses
um you know when you’ve seen the sector
progressing in the future
Future of InsurTech
well I think you know like from the uh
Business Development perspective I think
there will be emerging risk that
um require specific or
um bespoke products for
um and then you know the on the other
side the technology side I think the
um emerging all the emerging technology
today will just be continued and
progress because at the end of the day
we are at the beginning of the
Innovations uh stage in insurance so a
lot of us are now aware of the needs and
and we are aware of Technology out there
but this is now where we have to
implement and that may take a little bit
of time but I think in the next coming
year collaborations would be the number
ones in everyone’s agenda and the reason
for that is because it’s essentially the
key to building an ecosystem which would
help the insurance industry and it will
solve like our current climate right now
insurance is being hardly hit by covet
brexit and you know all the instability
in the world and that mean that
um our ability to make money going to be
limited as well as the customer
acquisition cost is rising
and therefore you know our ability to be
able to create the uh ecosystem to
support and reduce our claim costs
reduce our operating costs make it more
efficient you know like within the group
will help
um so it’s all about collaborations and
this have kind of you know like impact
on the technology that we will build uh
the technology will have to be built so
that it could be easily integrate and
collaborate uh similarly for the you
know product development size the
product development and the
distributions uh have to go and it’s had
to be you know focused on the ecosystems
so
Career Transitions
that’s why the sharing and the economy
is the great market for this emerging
products
in the gig economy as well as something
that we started to hear and more and
more about with uh changes um in the
workforce and covered
um opposite and and the changes um that
occurred because of that and you
mentioned at the start that you didn’t
work insurance which is so interesting
to me because I hear a lot about career
Transitions and trying to get you know
more ladies into the tech sector that
come from completely different
backgrounds
um we sometimes I hear stories about
ladies that were biologists and pilots
Do you need to be technical
and teachers and um there is always that
that thought that you have to be
technical to go into Tech and you have
to you know have a computer science
degree to even want to to venture over
into the industry do you need to be
technical for a career in suretech
because from your background it just
sounds like you you saw a need a
customer need and and and you you went
for it yes
um not at all you don’t have to be Tech
but it’s dependent on your career
Inspirations of where you want to be in
the organizations obviously if your
inspiration is to be uh you know like
um I.T developer or data science you may
have
you know to pick up some coding skills
but if you just want to be in you know
admin role Finance or even sales or
marketing you would need less of a
technology a tech skills but more of the
other skills
you can separate
to go into Tech and working for
technology company is two separate
things because if you really want to go
into like Tech job then obviously you
need tech skills
um but if you just want to work for a
technology company
um you can you know depending on the
role
get the job and you can make that you
know Transitions and it’s a lot easier
to work for a startups than a
well-established company because if you
work for a well-established company they
would require you to have some basic
experience to get the job and in most
cases they would require more than
experience to you know get a high a
senior role within the company
Opportunities for women
yes yes and um obviously there is a
whole conversation there as well around
um the difference between working at a a
startup
um and an established company and and
exactly right what you just said about
everything
um that you will learn at a startup
um as well the opportunities presented
to you but what opportunities do you
think um the ensure tech industry
presents to women
yes I think you know like with the EI
initiative being in the center of
everyone agenda thanks to the
sustainability goals
um so that means that there are more
um
initiative within the industry to
promote women to recruit promote women
um as you can already see you know like
we’ve got fantastic
um Awards dedicated to women we’ve got
um networking Forum dedicated to
diversity within the industry so
everything is moving forward from the
kind of diversity and inclusion side and
there’s certainly you know like a lot of
um focuses now to bring
new people into the insurance industry
because you know and
um and I’m sure that you know like
recruiting
um diversity into the organization has
now become you know like this
um part of the kpi which mean that it
will be checked it would be matcha and
we can even penalize those organizations
that fall behind so this is like
fantastic opportunities for women to now
you know starting to go into technical
uh role OR tech companies if they don’t
already uh in this position
Pushback
yeah did you find any
um pushback yourself when when you
entered the industry was you know what
would your experience when when you got
started and so it’s not just as a woman
but also as as an entrepreneur you know
stepping out there and and launching a
business yeah I think pushback uh come
from uh not just insurance industry any
industry
um that need change even you know if you
look at ourselves if you have to change
uh your routine it takes such a long
time to change your routine right and
most of the time we will tell ourselves
that we don’t need to change because
we’re good enough the way we are and
that’s exactly what happened with big
organization as well that require so
many uh stakeholders buy-in in order to
to make you know like kind of marginal
changes and that’s what what you see
um obviously you know like like any
um well established uh and heavily
regulated industry change is will come
gradually and slowly and and you know
like we know this because when you
wanted to
um have
when you work with insurance company you
know that the you know like from the
time that they decide to start a project
and when they execute could take several
months so in short Tech that are in
insurance industry you have to take that
into account so if you come from other
industry you may not have seen you know
like or you may not be aware of the
links of time that it would take for you
to
um get a project and then completed them
and and that had
um
really kind of Major Impact on how we
calculate our budget how we you know how
much money we need to raise basically
whatever you need to raise in in uh
money
um to start up
a business
maybe you know like make sure that you
write three four times that
because
in order to you know like
um to be able to swipe in Insurance
because the um the running costs per
project is going to be much longer
and you have to be able to survive you
know like at the kind of startups uh
stage for longer and this is something
that I I didn’t know until I get into
this
oh that is interesting and and in terms
Skills
of skills obviously we mentioned um that
you don’t have to have technical skills
but is there anything that that you wish
you had known before you started or any
you know valuable
um Insight that you can give us about
the type of skills that that you you
might need to to come into the industry
um insurance as an industry is pretty
much you know like
um a circle around Network
is all about networking so you’re in the
personal skill become crucial
and more importantly your ability to you
know like kind of connect with everyone
in the industry and make friends that’s
very important even more important than
you know like our technical skill to
start
and so I think that’s something that we
also
um need to uh be able to do quite
quickly which is you know working out
who is key stakeholder in the intern
industry who can we network with and how
we get business because it’s all about
trust I mean insurance industry is all
about trust and we trust people that we
know
um and therefore there is a lot more
focuses around the networking skills and
people skills than the technical skills
Networking
see and
and I suppose that has changed for a lot
of people as well hasn’t it networking
or particularly during covid
um you know that that changed for uh a
lot of us actually I remember
um always being at networking events
um in person events and then obviously
um
that changed or for so many of us
because of covid and like you say is
still incredibly important to to make
those networks
um when when you’re getting started in a
new area is that something
um that happened with yourself did you
you knew people in the industry that
that could help you there
uh when we first started we don’t know
Building a brand
um that many people to be honest and
there was
quite a wild decision from what you’re
saying about you know um just it’s
seeing a gap in the market and um yes I
took calculated with when I first
started I know that you know I I knew
what I need to do
and I knew uh what I must have at the
time and that’s all I you know like
um have to start up for example you know
I knew that I need to have co-founder
who
um who would need to bring the
technology skills into the business I
knew that I need to ask skills
um I knew that I need to build network
and to the point that people and also
build my brand it was very important I
think the first uh 12 months I was so
focused on building my brand because I
know that people will question my
um skills Insurance skills people will
question who I am because they haven’t
seen or they don’t know who I am so
um building you know brand and having
industry recognition was my key number
one in the first kind of you know like
12 to 18 month
um and building skills of course we need
a bit of help you know like we went to a
couple of accelerated program that were
targeted or specific to insurance
industry and through that process we
were able to network with high profile
and third leader in the industry
and from there we built ourselves to
become one
and so it sounds simple but it’s
extremely extremely difficult to yes
exactly yeah I can imagine
yes and today of course is another story
so I never thought that I could reach
here in this lifetime but you know what
I’m here so yes yes and I mean obviously
you touched upon it there but what do
you love about your real world in the
industry
wow I think there’s two things that I
What do you love about your job
love first of all is the fact that we
are in the Forefront of
um implementing and making changes
beloved uh I love this person I like you
know my value is to add value and I felt
like I you know I feel like I add value
and the other part is people
um insurance people are fantastic this
is like
um a decent trustworthy people in the
industry and they all have very similar
value and they all have very similar
ethic
I love it
um and I think you know like as an
industry I I love the um
um the opportunity that were given to me
I love the fact that I’m needed I love
the fact that you know like um I can add
so much value in this business that I am
in
um and more importantly you know like
all my colleagues and people that I know
they are fantastic fantastic people
and you’re the CEO of Tapley as we know
um do you have any advice for other
women looking to get into leadership
roles
How can companies promote more women
um I think you know like they just need
to be adding value I truly believe that
we have all the mechanisms and we have
all of the
um support from the government from the
company from HR to promote more women
but we just need to Showcase more women
and we need to be very focused on
um our value added to the company so
that it it make it easier for the
company to justify have a movement at
leadership role
yes it’s all about us you know like
taking all the boxes if that makes sense
yes yes so we cannot
um I think the obviously the whole uh
promoting woman initiative is fantastic
it’s given the opportunity but we have
to take the initiative
Barriers to entry
yes yeah
and have you found
um you know in in your experience
Sometimes women they say you know they
they feel like they have to
um prove themselves more
um is that is that something that that
you have found certainly there are some
degree of barrier for entrance and
insurance and I think as a woman we are
not starting at zero
um but I do feel that we’re starting at
minus so when we talk to investor for
example you know like it we always get
questions that would lead to negative
response so it’s the Fear Factor
question what if a question as
supportive is there an opportunity out
there and like any you know kind of
startup companies
um we are projecting the future
um it’s all about future opportunity and
and it’s not always you know reflect uh
your current state of the business
Investment
I actually um you just mentioned
investment there which uh it would be
very interesting for for a lot of our
listeners and I have heard that before
obviously about women
um trying to gain investment to to
launch a business
um as you mentioned we do hear negative
stories and sometimes about you know
ladies struggling
um to secure the funding they need
um and there are some quite famous
stories obviously of ladies that
struggled to secure investment and went
on to make um you know million dollar
businesses and sell them and how was
that experience for yourself
um it was not easy obviously to raise
money uh I don’t know whether this is
because I’m a woman or is it because you
know like
um
um yeah
started out
but certainly in the last two years
there has been a challenge for any
startup and insurance to raise money and
for very obvious reasons obviously you
know like during covet Financial or
fintech in short take were one of the
top industry that have one of the
highest death rate I mean death rate as
in you know like for every startup that
um for every new for every new hundred
startup 78 of startup dies compared to
the covet which is about you know like
48 roughly so you can imagine that the
number of death rate is nearly double
um and therefore I could see you know
like a lot of investment and not going
to be in that
um
investing in early stage company because
you don’t know whether your investment
will last
um beyond the seat belt or not
so there has certainly been you know
like a kind of uh
um shift in investing more in a more
later stage and and therefore a lot of
startup in Insurance space
um that are looking to raise money right
now will be in similar positions but as
a woman of course there’s even less
investment if you know like let’s say
that no investment in insurance for
insure Tech and then female founder who
only receive a fraction of the
investment will be in an even more
difficult situation
Words of wisdom
yes yeah I can imagine
um and obviously
um to end our program today do you have
any words of wisdom for you know uh uh
listeners on you know whether they are
thinking about starting a career in
um in short Tech or um just launching
their own business as well do you do you
have any um advice that you would like
to to offer
um for those who are outside insurance
industry and want to get into intern I
would say just do
apply for job and make sure you upscale
because you’re going to need it for the
role in Insurance even as a you know
basic understanding of the insurance
industry be able to kind of work out
where you can add value and how you know
like and justify your transition I think
you should be able to get a job now
um you know for female founder out there
who wanted to get into ensure tech make
sure that you lay raise a lot of money
because you’re going to need it and it’s
not what you expect it’s not like you
know like a traditional three months and
you can get a project out three months
is to develop but then you know like
um you have to factor in other slack
like discussions uh waiting for uh
information that sort of thing could
take up to you know like a year or 18
months before you see the project
completed and delivered
um so it’s depends on the size of the
project of course but generally you know
it’s everything takes longer
when you do a project in Insurance space
thank you very much Dan Tana for talking
to us today and sharing your valuable
insights I meant to everybody listening
thank you for joining us and we hope to
see you again next time
thank you so much
