In a significant development for the European fintech and insurtech sectors, Swiss startup Humbrela has successfully secured €161,000 in funding to develop its unified insurance intelligence platform. This funding, provided by Venture Kick, will enable the Montreux-based company to advance its AI-driven solution aimed at transforming how insurance and warranty data is managed and accessed. As a serial entrepreneur myself, I was immediately intrigued by this solution, which takes a unique approach to addressing long-standing challenges in the insurance industry.
The Challenge: Fragmented Insurance Data
If you’ve ever had to dig through countless emails, PDF files, or online portals to find your insurance policy details, you’ll understand the problem Humbrela is tackling. In today’s world, insurance data is scattered across multiple platforms, making it especially difficult for brokers and MGAs (Managing General Agents) to provide consistent, timely advice to their clients. On top of that, the insurance industry still depends heavily on human advisors to navigate the complexity and emotional nuance of policies, particularly in scenarios like health or property insurance.
General AI tools have tried to crack this nut, but with only 52% accuracy on insurance-specific content, they’ve fallen short. This lack of precision creates inefficiencies and risks for both advisors and clients.
Humbrela’s Vision: Unified Intelligence Layer
Humbrela offers something different: a dedicated intelligence layer designed specifically for the insurance sector. It pulls together data from various sources, whether that’s emails, scanned policies, or third-party providers, and organizes it into a single, accessible platform. That’s a big leap from spending hours piecing together information manually. The platform also flags key terms and protections within contracts and turns technical jargon into clear, actionable insights. This kind of clarity is exactly what brokers and MGAs need to serve clients better while ensuring all their bases are covered.
Another standout feature? It’s focused purely on professional users. Humbrela isn’t trying to replace personal interaction with a just-for-anyone chatbot; rather, it’s enhancing the work of professionals who are already trained to uphold trust with clients.
The Funding: A Budding Startup Garners Support
The €161,000 funding from Venture Kick represents a major milestone for Humbrela. The company plans to allocate these resources towards improving its AI models, strengthening partnerships with insurers and third-party administrators, and meeting EU-wide compliance standards. Humbrela has already made headway, boasting early partnerships with brokers in Switzerland and France. Talks are also ongoing with more major players across Europe.
This support from Venture Kick gives Humbrela a unique opportunity to scale up its operations and turn its vision of a pan-European insurance intelligence layer into a reality. As someone who has bootstrapped ventures and successfully secured funding for my own startups within the EU ecosystem, I know first-hand how fundamental support like this can be.
Lessons for Entrepreneurs: Addressing Pain Points
Entrepreneurs often ask where to start when solving problems in an established industry, and Humbrela provides a great example to follow. Here’s why:
- Understand the User: Humbrela’s platform is built for brokers, MGAs, and similar professionals, addressing their precise needs, rather than taking a blanket approach.
- Solve a Specific Problem: By targeting the inefficiency in accessing insurance and warranty data, the startup tackled a tangible challenge head-on. A clear vision of fixing something broken is key.
- Build for Collaboration: From the beginning, Humbrela has been integrating its platform with existing ecosystems, such as insurers and third-party administrators, ensuring seamless interactions with other stakeholders.
- Be Regionally Focused: By beginning their roll-out in Switzerland and France, Humbrela is creating a scalable European success story, one I predict other startups will replicate.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Building your own impactful startup takes some trial and error. From my experience, and looking at what Humbrela has done right, here are some common pitfalls you should dodge:
- Neglecting Niche Users: Don’t aim too broadly. Focus on solving detailed problems for a dedicated audience. Humbrela’s success lies in narrowing down on professional, not consumer, needs.
- Poor Networking: Relationships with ecosystem stakeholders are frequently the springboard for growth. Even as a bootstrapped founder, I learned how essential a strong network is for leveraging resources and securing traction.
- Ignoring Customer Feedback: Test small markets first and refine your product according to the responses received. Switzerland and France seem to be testbeds for Humbrela before scaling operations across the EU.
What We Can All Learn
This move by Humbrela is a wake-up call for entrepreneurs and innovators. Europe is ripe for disruption, especially in legacy industries like insurance. The fragmented and outdated processes in these sectors are begging for creative problem solvers. Here’s how you can seize similar opportunities:
- Keep an eye on challenges within established sectors. Problems that seem mundane, like messy data, present scalable opportunities.
- Be hyper-local to start. Breaking into smaller, clearly defined markets allows for traction and proof of concept before expanding.
- Focus on strategic partnerships. Collaboration with key players can provide the credibility and reach needed for substantial growth.
- Understand your target customer. It’s a common piece of advice for a reason.
The Conclusion: Why Humbrela’s Story is Inspiring
For me, Humbrela represents much of what I aim to achieve with my own ventures, like the Fe/male Switch: empowering professionals through tailored, problem-solving tools. The fact that they’re succeeding within a highly regulated and competitive market inspires me, and it should inspire you too, whether you’re running a startup or dreaming of starting one.
So, the next time you get frustrated with an industry process, remember Humbrela. They saw a problem, tackled it with a specific solution, and now their team is growing, their geographic reach is expanding, and they’re changing the status quo. And if they can do it, who says you can’t?
FAQ
1. What is Humbrela's recent funding news?
Humbrela, a Swiss startup, recently received €161,000 in funding from Venture Kick to develop its AI-powered platform for unifying insurance and warranty data. Learn more about Humbrela’s funding announcement
2. What problem does Humbrela aim to solve?
Humbrela addresses the fragmentation of insurance data, which is often scattered across emails, PDFs, and online portals. It aims to streamline data management by consolidating everything into one unified platform. Explore Humbrela’s solution
3. How does Humbrela’s platform benefit users?
The platform helps brokers, MGAs, and professionals locate, organize, and interpret insurance and warranty data efficiently. It also highlights key terms and simplifies complex contracts into actionable insights. Learn more about Humbrela’s platform features
4. Who are the target users for Humbrela?
Humbrela is designed specifically for professional users like insurance brokers, wholesale brokers, and Managing General Agents (MGAs), not individual consumers.
5. Where is Humbrela currently operating?
Humbrela has already onboarded its first brokers in Switzerland and France and is in discussion with stakeholders across Europe to expand its reach. Check out Humbrela’s current market reach
6. What distinguishes Humbrela from general-purpose AI solutions?
Unlike general AI tools that have limited effectiveness in insurance contexts (52% accuracy), Humbrela’s solution is industry-specific and designed to meet the precise needs of insurance professionals. Learn more about Humbrela’s AI approach
7. How will Humbrela use the €161,000 funding?
The funding will be used to enhance their AI models, improve partnerships with insurers and third-party providers, and ensure compliance with EU standards. Explore Humbrela’s funding allocation plans
8. Who are Humbrela's co-founders?
Humbrela was co-founded by Semchs Zaidi (CEO), Simon Mazas (CTO), Mathieu Chabasse (CPO), and Sarah El Abshihy (Legal Counsel).
9. What industries is Humbrela targeting for its innovations?
Humbrela is focused on the insurance sector, particularly health, motor, and property insurance industries, helping professionals improve client interactions and data management. Discover more about Humbrela’s focus on insurance innovation
10. What lessons for entrepreneurs can be learned from Humbrela’s success?
Humbrela emphasizes the importance of understanding your target audience, solving a specific pain point, focusing on collaboration, and starting with a well-defined regional market before scaling up. Learn more about entrepreneurial lessons from Humbrela
About the Author
Violetta Bonenkamp, also known as MeanCEO, is an experienced startup founder with an impressive educational background including an MBA and four other higher education degrees. She has over 20 years of work experience across multiple countries, including 5 years as a solopreneur and serial entrepreneur. Throughout her startup experience she has applied for multiple startup grants at the EU level, in the Netherlands and Malta, and her startups received quite a few of those. She’s been living, studying and working in many countries around the globe and her extensive multicultural experience has influenced her immensely.
Violetta Bonenkamp's expertise in CAD sector, IP protection and blockchain
Violetta Bonenkamp is recognized as a multidisciplinary expert with significant achievements in the CAD sector, intellectual property (IP) protection, and blockchain technology.
CAD Sector:
- Violetta is the CEO and co-founder of CADChain, a deep tech startup focused on developing IP management software specifically for CAD (Computer-Aided Design) data. CADChain addresses the lack of industry standards for CAD data protection and sharing, using innovative technology to secure and manage design data.
- She has led the company since its inception in 2018, overseeing R&D, PR, and business development, and driving the creation of products for platforms such as Autodesk Inventor, Blender, and SolidWorks.
- Her leadership has been instrumental in scaling CADChain from a small team to a significant player in the deeptech space, with a diverse, international team.
IP Protection:
- Violetta has built deep expertise in intellectual property, combining academic training with practical startup experience. She has taken specialized courses in IP from institutions like WIPO and the EU IPO.
- She is known for sharing actionable strategies for startup IP protection, leveraging both legal and technological approaches, and has published guides and content on this topic for the entrepreneurial community.
- Her work at CADChain directly addresses the need for robust IP protection in the engineering and design industries, integrating cybersecurity and compliance measures to safeguard digital assets.
Blockchain:
- Violetta’s entry into the blockchain sector began with the founding of CADChain, which uses blockchain as a core technology for securing and managing CAD data.
- She holds several certifications in blockchain and has participated in major hackathons and policy forums, such as the OECD Global Blockchain Policy Forum.
- Her expertise extends to applying blockchain for IP management, ensuring data integrity, traceability, and secure sharing in the CAD industry.
Violetta is a true multiple specialist who has built expertise in Linguistics, Education, Business Management, Blockchain, Entrepreneurship, Intellectual Property, Game Design, AI, SEO, Digital Marketing, cyber security and zero code automations. Her extensive educational journey includes a Master of Arts in Linguistics and Education, an Advanced Master in Linguistics from Belgium (2006-2007), an MBA from Blekinge Institute of Technology in Sweden (2006-2008), and an Erasmus Mundus joint program European Master of Higher Education from universities in Norway, Finland, and Portugal (2009).
She is the founder of Fe/male Switch, a startup game that encourages women to enter STEM fields, and also leads CADChain, and multiple other projects like the Directory of 1,000 Startup Cities with a proprietary MeanCEO Index that ranks cities for female entrepreneurs. Violetta created the "gamepreneurship" methodology, which forms the scientific basis of her startup game. She also builds a lot of SEO tools for startups. Her achievements include being named one of the top 100 women in Europe by EU Startups in 2022 and being nominated for Impact Person of the year at the Dutch Blockchain Week. She is an author with Sifted and a speaker at different Universities. Recently she published a book on Startup Idea Validation the right way: from zero to first customers and beyond, launched a Directory of 1,500+ websites for startups to list themselves in order to gain traction and build backlinks and is building MELA AI to help local restaurants in Malta get more visibility online.
For the past several years Violetta has been living between the Netherlands and Malta, while also regularly traveling to different destinations around the globe, usually due to her entrepreneurial activities. This has led her to start writing about different locations and amenities from the POV of an entrepreneur. Here’s her recent article about the best hotels in Italy to work from.
About the Publication
Fe/male Switch is an innovative startup platform designed to empower women entrepreneurs through an immersive, game-like experience. Founded in 2020 during the pandemic "without any funding and without any code," this non-profit initiative has evolved into a comprehensive educational tool for aspiring female entrepreneurs.The platform was co-founded by Violetta Shishkina-Bonenkamp, who serves as CEO and one of the lead authors of the Startup News branch.
Mission and Purpose
Fe/male Switch Foundation was created to address the gender gap in the tech and entrepreneurship space. The platform aims to skill-up future female tech leaders and empower them to create resilient and innovative tech startups through what they call "gamepreneurship". By putting players in a virtual startup village where they must survive and thrive, the startup game allows women to test their entrepreneurial abilities without financial risk.
Key Features
The platform offers a unique blend of news, resources,learning, networking, and practical application within a supportive, female-focused environment:
- Skill Lab: Micro-modules covering essential startup skills
- Virtual Startup Building: Create or join startups and tackle real-world challenges
- AI Co-founder (PlayPal): Guides users through the startup process
- SANDBOX: A testing environment for idea validation before launch
- Wellness Integration: Virtual activities to balance work and self-care
- Marketplace: Buy or sell expert sessions and tutorials
Impact and Growth
Since its inception, Fe/male Switch has shown impressive growth:
- 5,000+ female entrepreneurs in the community
- 100+ startup tools built
- 5,000+ pieces of articles and news written
- 1,000 unique business ideas for women created
Partnerships
Fe/male Switch has formed strategic partnerships to enhance its offerings. In January 2022, it teamed up with global website builder Tilda to provide free access to website building tools and mentorship services for Fe/male Switch participants.
Recognition
Fe/male Switch has received media attention for its innovative approach to closing the gender gap in tech entrepreneurship. The platform has been featured in various publications highlighting its unique "play to learn and earn" model.
