ClaimSpace – The claims system of the future?

Claimspace provides insurance companies and their teams with the right tools to engage, support and empower their customers during the claim process. In an interview with ITHM, Gilberto Spencer, Founder and CEO at ClaimSpace, elaborates what pain points there are in the market, how their business model works and how they benefited from being part of the W1F Forward Accelerator.

1. What exactly does your start-up do and what is special about your business model?

ClaimSpace is a platform that solves the communication and transparency gap between customers, insurers and stakeholders during the claims process. As a complement to any existing claims system, our platform serves as a front end for customers and as a productivity tool for claims teams. Our business model is special because we are able to benefit policyholders at no cost as the insurer absorbs it. As such, insurers are investing in a significant improvement to their customers’ claim experience.

2. Why did you choose the W1Forward Accelerator Program of the InsurTech Hub Munich?

We chose the program as we saw a huge opportunity to really scale up our business in a highly supportive environment. What attracted us most was how serious and engaged the partners were with the program. Further, we saw that the mentorship offered by the program would provide the guidance we needed to fulfil any experience or skill gap.

3. What opportunities does Munich offer for start-ups?

Munich offers a wonderful environment for start-ups to grow, especially in the InsurTech space. The presence of many insurers makes it the perfect place for us to be in, especially as there is a culture of embracing innovation and collaboration with start-ups like us.

4. Where do you see yourself and your start-up in 5 years?

In 5 years, we see ClaimSpace being the standard platform used for insurers to communicate and engage with their customers during the claim process. Delays, miscommunication and misunderstandings will no longer pervade claims restoring the trust in our industry. We will raise the bar in claims customer service and customers will not accept to have it any other way. ClaimSpace will transform claims assessors jobs. Assessing claims can be tough, especially if you are poorly equipped to serve hundreds if not thousands of customers. The stress, burn out and staff turnover can be very high. Believe me, I’ve been there myself!

ClaimSpace will leave all that behind, claims teams will be equipped to work efficiently and spend time assisting customers rather than doing repetitive and admin tasks.

5. What advice would you give to other founders?

Our advice to other founders is to spend time to truly understand the problems that insurers are facing on a business level. I have first-hand experience working in different claims departments, which has given me a deeply understanding of how the problem affects customers, insurers and different parties involved in the process. For us it’s vital to have a close connection to the problem that you are trying to solve. This has really enabled us to better engage with our clients since we can present the solution from their perspective.

6. What surprised you most when you founded your company?

When we founded ClaimSpace, we were surprised at how difficult it was to make first contact with insurers. During the first few months, we were unable to establish relationships directly, which meant that cold calling and cold emailing was highly ineffective. Things finally changed when some of them heard about us at speaker events/conferences. However, insurers are slow to deal with and negotiations can take some time. However, our experience in Munich has been very positive. In the short time we have been here, we have already made serious progress with two insurance companies, which is much faster than anything we have seen back home in Australia.