Munich Startup: What does your startup do? What problem do you solve?
Alex Dog: Onpier is a B2B2C platform for non-insurance value-added services. Via the Onpier platform, affiliated insurers can offer their customers relevant value-added services. These services meaningfully complement the insurers' core business, namely insurance products. Onpier enables value-added services and processes that have never existed before. Onpier builds professional and technical services on the platform to immediately offer insurance customers a wow effect (benefits during the interaction). The foundation of the Onpier platform is the Service-Dominated Architecture, a blueprint for platforms and ecosystems. This blueprint enables learning from every interaction and, based on data, offering end customers the next best use case.
An example: After taking out car insurance, Onpier enables the insurance customer to book a vehicle registration service digitally and easily. To do so, the customer clicks on a link provided by the insurer and is redirected to Onpier. Onpier itself is not visibly present as a brand. Rather, the booking process is designed in the insurer's look and feel – thus, the customer always associates the positive experience of the value-added service with their insurer. Onpier has an interface to the insurer, allowing data already collected there to be pre-filled in the booking process. With just a few clicks, the service can then be booked with the connected service provider and paid for via PayPal. After receiving the booking, the service provider then takes care of the registration. Has the vehicle been registered and is it an electric vehicle? The customer then receives an offer to apply for the attractive GHG bonus immediately afterwards – at Onpier, we call this integration and the implementation of meaningful use cases service chains, which represent real added value.
Onpier saves insurers’ resources
But why does Onpier need to Insurance customers Offer value-added services? Of course, insurers could also connect service providers to existing IT systems themselves. However, many insurers face the challenge of limited IT resources. Furthermore, all contracts with service providers would have to be negotiated individually. This is precisely where the Onpier platform comes in. Onpier handles the entire service provider selection and integration process – both technical and contractual – and makes the various services available on the platform as so-called use cases. The connected insurers now only have to select the most suitable use cases and make them available to their customers. For example, we have connected several service providers for the GHG premium use case, so that the insurer can also always offer its customers the best offer at the time. Importantly, the insurer decides which customer receives which use case from which service provider.
Munich Startup: But that's been around for a long time!
Alex Dog: No, Onpier is unique in this form and as a solution in the insurance industry – current competitive analyses have also shown this. Firstly, the Onpier platform is characterized by a systematic development of resources (data, professional and technical services, etc.), allowing them to be combined in new ways to continuously launch innovative value-added services. Furthermore, Onpier offers particularly user-friendly and seamless integration into insurers' existing systems. This means that insurers not only have minimal IT overhead, but also that customers enjoy a uniform user experience with the look and feel of the respective insurer. By integrating the interface with the insurers, existing customer data can be pre-populated, which significantly speeds up the process and significantly improves the user experience.
Onpier range of value-added services is constantly being expanded
Furthermore, Onpier not only offers isolated use cases, but links them to service chains that build on one another and offer the customer real added value – naturally data-driven, so that customers are offered the right service at the right time and in the right place (whether this happens is, of course, decided by the insurer).
Onpier is constantly expanding its range of value-added services, not only in mobility but also in other areas such as home and garden or health. This ensures that insurers always have access to the latest and most innovative services without having to invest in development themselves.
Munich Startup: What is your founding story?
Alex Dog: Onpier is not a startup in the traditional sense, but actually a spin-off. Onpier emerged from a Huk-Coburg project. Since 2022, we have had another shareholder, LVM Versicherung. The Onpier platform was designed from the outset as a B2B2C platform for the insurance industry. Our shareholders are convinced that only by working together can insurers create a relevant platform for value-added services that will enable them to compete with competitors from other industries.
We really got started as an independent company and with the first use cases at the beginning of 2022. We've grown significantly over the past two years, so we now have over 50 colleagues on our team. A large part of our development team works remotely and is spread across the EU.
Advantages and disadvantages of a spin-off
Munich Startup: What have been your biggest challenges so far?
Alex Dog: Launching as a spin-off of the market leader in motor insurance naturally has its advantages and disadvantages. This meant that we had a broad customer base for value-added services in the mobility sector right from the start, which really helped us. Naturally, other insurers initially view competitors' attempts to establish a cross-industry B2B2C platform with skepticism. Over the past two years, however, we have been able to overcome the initial reservations of many of our competitors, so that we now represent five of the ten largest German insurers on the platform. For example, in the mobility sector, we theoretically have access to over 25 million motor insurance customers.
Munich Startup: Where would you like to be in one year, where in five years?
Alex Dog: We're currently working hard on new use cases for a wide range of areas that will go live in the coming months. In particular, we're optimizing existing processes to enable faster deployment of the use cases. We always keep the end customer experience in mind and aim to provide them with precisely the services that best meet their needs.
Munich offers an innovation-friendly environment
Munich Startup: How have you experienced Munich as a startup location so far?
Alex Dog: Munich is a very good location for us as a startup in the insurance industry. On the one hand, we have access to a wide range of insurers, but on the other hand, we also have access to many service providers that are suitable for our use cases. Furthermore, Munich offers access to highly qualified talent, a supportive network, and an innovation-friendly environment.
Munich Startup: Hidden champion or shooting star?
Alex Dog: Partly both. Because we focus on the niche market of value-added services in the context of insurance and possess a high level of innovation, we partially meet the definition of a hidden champion. However, we still have to prove in the coming years that we can achieve consistent success and continuous growth over the years. So, today we are more of a shooting star within the insurance industry. However, the fact that so many insurers are joining us shows that we are on the right track and truly meeting the needs of the entire industry.
