Cover Genius is a global insurtech for embedded protection. And through XCover, the company’s award-winning global distribution platform, we protect the customers of the world’s largest digital companies with seamless, end-to-end experiences. To learn more, Pulse 2.0 interviewed Kyle Keogh, Cover Genius’s chief business officer, Americas.
Kyle Keogh’s Background
As Chief Business Officer, Americas at Cover Genius, the global insurtech for embedded protection, Keogh oversees P&L, business operations and strategic planning across the North American and Latin American regions. And Keogh said:
“Before Cover Genius, I spent more than a decade in numerous leadership positions at Google, working with clients to drive sales, improve their brand, and maximize product launches. Before joining Google, I was a Director of Business Transformation at IBM, and I started my career serving technology and telecom clients at McKinsey & Co. and JP Morgan.”
Formation Of Cover Genius
How did the idea for the company come together? Keogh shared:
“Cover Genius was founded by Angus McDonald and Chris Bayley, who pivoted their global Online Travel Agency (OTA) after experiencing two key problems firsthand. At the time, there was no solution for distributing protection products to a global audience, meaning a partner would need to negotiate separate deals with each regional leader, which is difficult, especially if one market is small, but the sum of all markets is large. It was also the partner’s responsibility to build a platform that could handle different market requirements, compliance, quote and bind questions, pricing, reporting, marketing, claim filing, claim processing and payouts.”
“To address this, Cover Genius has focused extensively on acquiring the necessary licenses or authorizations in more than 60 countries and all 50 US States to distribute insurance (and non-insurance) products via our award-winning XCover platform, with claims and support handled by XCover.com, an award-winning B2B2C solution.”
Core Products
What are the company’s core products and features? Keogh explained:
“Cover Genius is the insurtech for embedded protection. Our global distribution platform, XCover, enables the world’s largest digital companies to embed and offer any line of insurance or warranty product directly to their global customers with a single API integration. This can mean enabling leading airlines to offer embedded travel protection to their customers in the booking flow or enabling the world’s largest e-commerce marketplaces to offer tailored warranties and accidental damage coverage to their customers.”
“XCover is a global, end-to-end solution that handles it all for our partners — from licensing to claims and payments. We are also licensed or authorized in over 60 countries and 50 US States, so we can serve our partners’ global audiences and scale with them as they grow. XCover offers instant claim payments in 90+ currencies and our customer-centric approach has resulted in an industry-leading post-claims net promoter score (NPS).”
“We work across several verticals including travel, ticketing, logistics, and retail – anyone with an online platform reaching consumers and is available at Amazon, eBay, Uber, Spirit Airlines, Wayfair, Booking Holdings and more.”
Challenges Faced
After asking Keogh about the challenges that the company has faced, he acknowledged:
“Insurance is a centuries-old industry that has been ripe for disruption for a long time. At Cover Genius, while we are approaching insurtech in a completely new way, we also have made a point to have a robust team of people with expertise who come from within the traditional insurance industry. The same people who’ve been working for carriers and frustrated by the lack of speed and innovation who have been able to use their expertise to inform the way we’re approaching the industry here. We’re innovating and using tech to modernize an industry that has been historically slow to evolve, which means we can be nimble, move fast, and actually innovate. That is a really exciting opportunity.”
Evolution Of Cover Genius’ Technology
How has the company’s technology evolved since launching? Keogh noted:
“Our teams are constantly innovating and updating our integration and solution design process to address unique customer needs across different segments to achieve optimized and consistent offerings. We have complete in-house technology capabilities that give us the flexibility to provide our partners with the right solution for all distribution channels and device types.”
Significant Milestones
What have been some of the company’s most significant milestones? Keogh cited:
“Cover Genius has had an exciting 12 months in which we’ve completed our Series D funding, acquired embedded warranty provider Clyde and launched several new global partnerships (e.g. Uber, AudienceView, Turkish Airlines, etc.). We also acquired refund protection specialist Booking Protect in July 2022.”
“XCover.com, our B2C platform, has added more than 6 million new customers and is projected to add 1 million new customers per month as more of the world’s leading brands see the value in providing customers with an intuitive online experience through embedded protection.”
“Cover Genius has ambitious plans to continue our expansion across the globe, as we predict that embedded protection will follow a similar trajectory to embedded finance and digital payments. The team is heavily invested in pursuing new partnerships in verticals that can greatly benefit from embedded offerings, including travel, ticketing, retail, and logistics.”
Customer Success Stories
After asking Keogh about customer success stories, he highlighted:
“We’ve partnered with some of the largest brands in the world to co-create solutions that embed protection at the most relevant customer touchpoint. We work with airlines, travel and rental companies, retail, financial services, real estate, logistics, ticketing, gig economy and benefit companies and more. Our roster of partners includes some of the world’s largest digital companies, such as Uber, eBay, Hopper, Turkish Airlines, SeatGeek, Shippo, and more.”
“Recently, we examined data collected from a fintech partner that showed adding protection to the checkout experience increased purchase conversion rates. The significant boost in sales comes from offering protection at the point of sale that’s directly relevant to the underlying purchase. This ‘Protection Effect’ enables XCover partners to benefit from more satisfied customers, which in turn increases confidence and willingness to make major purchases.”
All our case studies are available on our website.”
Differentiation From The Competition
What differentiates the company from its competition? Keogh affirmed:
“We are uniquely positioned as the only insurtech with global end-to-end capabilities. This means that we can bring a solution to market for a partner from any industry that wants to protect its global customer with any line of protection or warranty — regardless of their country, language or currency. Other players lack a credible distribution platform, and/or are monoline (meaning they only work in one industry), and/or only operate in one country.”
Future Company Goals
What are some of the company’s future company goals? Keogh concluded:
“Our vision is to protect all of the customers of the world’s largest digital companies. As the world becomes increasingly digital, customers expect a high level of engagement from the platforms and services they interact with in their daily lives. Embedded protection is no exception, consumers don’t want to be linked out to a third party or research options to protect their purchase independently, they want convenient offers at the right time and place.”
“We’ve already seen substantial growth this year having recently signed partners including Uber, Spirit Airlines, Turkish Airlines, AudienceView, SendCloud and several others. We expect this momentum to continue as we secure new partners in various industries across the world and continue to expand our global team.”
