Short-term insurance giant Santam has bought the remainder of insurance technology company JaSure it didn’t already own to bolster its digital offerings for commercial and personal clients.
The remaining 49% of JaSure was bought for an undisclosed amount, the JSE-listed insurer said in a statement on Tuesday. JaSure sold the initial 51% stake to Santam in 2020.
JaSure is an on-demand insuretech offering that allows clients to activate or deactivate insurance cover for specific assets as required. The app-based offering enables clients to buy insurance for motor vehicles and portable possessions such as mobile phones, laptops, photographic equipment and musical instruments, and sporting equipment such as bicycles, eyewear and camping gear.
“We believe we can open up the potential for increased value-add to our clients and the Santam group through a 100% ownership,” said Edward Gibbens, the executive head of Santam’s commercial and personal insurance business. “We aim to leverage the existing and powerful client experience and younger market reach of JaSure, while maximising the Santam efficiencies and wider distribution capability, including the Sanlam Group.”
JaSure MD and co-founder Jaclyn Prior said the two companies had “co-created a unique model ... that balances JaSure’s entrepreneurial core and digital innovation [with] Santam’s depth of insurance expertise.
“The JaSure founders and management team are excited about the next chapter which enables further collaboration and increased support; it elevates our ability to take on a growing market opportunity. This is a significant milestone for the JaSure business,” she added.
Santam, SA’s largest short-term insurer, told Business Day in March 2021 that it was looking to become a fully digital insurer in the wake of Covid-19 which severely disrupted its business model. While the group said at the time it wanted to evolve into an end-to-end digital business capable of doing all its business online, it wasn’t seeking to remove its brokers and would instead look at ways of helping them embrace digitalisation.
The move to become a more digital business is likely to involve more online business, from acquiring new clients to processing claims and annual policy reviews, either via mobile app or website. It would also mark a shift away from doing business via call-centres that have become the biggest direct marketing channel for local insurers.
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