Building the future of insurance tech with Upcover | The Further, Faster Podcast

Insurance: easily one of the world’s least “sexy” industries. As Bede, points out, it’s not even something many funds want to focus on. For Skye and Anish, however, insurance represented an opportunity – one they wanted to grab. Today they are heading up a fully digital insurance platform with a team that spans ten countries, are trading with 40 insurers, and provide insurance for around 60,000 businesses in Australia. They just closed a $19m Series A, which will go towards further expansion. In this episode of the Further, Faster Podcast, Skye and Anish dig into the processes and culture that has held insurance back for so long – and how they managed to build an innovative business in such a conservative sector. 

Skye and Anish met at Antler in 2019. Skye came with a background in insurance and Anish was an open-minded entrepreneur seeking a co-founder. They tell Bede how they decided to partner up and start building a company together, and soon began to realise how desperately the sector needed a shake up. “Speaking to Skye I realized there were so many opportunities here for digitization,” says Anish. “For improving customer experience and for just delivering a better end-to-end journey for the customer.”

They talk Bede through the journey from inception to growth – and the challenges they faced along the way. As always, it’s a discussion loaded with advice and insights that can help guide other founders. “I think in the first couple of years it's largely the co-founders and maybe a small team, right?” says Anish. “So you're looking at every no as an opportunity. What can you learn from it?” 

Anish illustrates why patience and persistence is a key attribute in the startup world. “Insurers we pitched too back in 2020 we couldn't work with…they said come back to us in 2023,” he says. “When you’re a startup three years is a lifetime but we got back to them in 2023… and now we work together. So I think people come around to the fact that you're not giving up, you're not going away and they'll have to deal with you one way or another so the sooner you start to deal with us the better.”

The story of Upcover is also a story of two founders clicking – both in terms of concept and personality. The match is made stronger by their differing outlooks. “I can be a bit of a cynical realist at times … and Anish is definitely an optimist,” says Skye. “But he has a very process and systems view of how he goes through and resolves a problem. I think both are very helpful.” Skye is also proud to see the Upcover develop a strong company culture over the past five years, with the management level building a strong sense of ownership over everything they do. 

“It’s been an ultramarathon,” she says. “But amazing to see the team thrive.” 

To learn more about the ways that Upcover is bringing digital innovation to an analogue industry, watch the full conversation here.