Munich Startup: What does your startup do? What problem do you solve?
Alex Hund: Onpier is a B2B2C platform for non-insurance value-added services. Docked insurers can offer their customers relevant value-added services via the Onpier platform. These services complement the insurer’s core business, namely insurance products, in a meaningful way. Onpier enables value-added services and processes that have never existed before. This is because Onpier builds professional and technical services on the platform in order to offer insurance customers an immediate wow effect (benefit of use in the course of interaction). The basis for the Onpier platform is the Service Dominated Architecture, a blueprint for platforms and ecosystems. This blueprint makes it possible to learn from every interaction and offer end customers the next best use case based on data.
One example: After taking out car insurance, Onpier makes it possible for the insurance customer to book a car registration service digitally and easily. To do this, the customer clicks on a link provided by the insurer and is redirected to Onpier. Onpier itself does not appear visibly as a brand. Instead, the booking route is designed in the look and feel of the insurer – the customer therefore always associates the positive experience of the value-added service with their insurer. Onpier has an interface to the insurer, which means that data already entered there can be pre-filled in the booking route. With just a few clicks, the service can then be booked with the docked service provider and paid for via PayPal. Once the booking has been received, the service provider then takes care of the registration. Has the vehicle been registered and is it an e-vehicle? Then the customer receives an offer to apply for the attractive THG premium immediately afterwards – at Onpier, we call this interlinking and the playing out of meaningful use cases service chains that represent real added value.
Onpier conserves insurers’ resources
But why does Onpier need to offer insurance customers value-added services? Of course, insurers could also connect service providers to existing IT systems themselves. However, the majority of insurers face the challenge that their own IT resources are limited. All contracts with service providers would also have to be negotiated individually. This is precisely where the Onpier platform comes in. Onpier takes care of the entire service provider selection and connection – both technically and contractually – and makes the various services available on the platform as so-called use cases. The docked insurers now only have to select the use cases that suit them and make them available to their customers. For example, we have docked several service providers for the THG premium use case so that the insurer can also always make the best offer available to its customers. The important thing here is that the insurer decides which customer is offered which use case by which service provider.
Munich Startup: But that already exists!
Alex Hund: No, Onpier is unique in this form and as a solution in the insurance industry – current competitive analyses also show us this. On the one hand, the Onpier platform is characterized by a planned structure of resources (data, professional and technical services, etc.) and makes it possible to combine these in new ways and thus 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 effort, but also that customers experience a uniform user experience in the look and feel of the respective insurer. By integrating the interface to the insurers, existing customer data can be pre-filled, which speeds up the process considerably and significantly improves the user experience.
Onpier’s range of value-added services is constantly being expanded
Furthermore, Onpier not only offers isolated use cases, but also links them into service chains that build on each other 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 the area of 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 Hund: 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 in the form of LVM Versicherung. The Onpier platform was designed from the outset as a B2B2C platform for the insurance industry. Our shareholders are convinced that insurers are only able to create a relevant platform for value-added services together in order to hold their own against competitors from other sectors.
At the beginning of 2022, we really got going as an independent company and with our first use cases. We have grown significantly over the last two years and now have over 50 colleagues in our team. The majority 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 Hund: When you start out as a spin-off from the market leader in car insurance, there are of course advantages and disadvantages. We had a broad customer base for value-added services in the mobility sector right from the start, which really helped us. Of course, other insurers are initially critical when competitors want to establish a cross-sector B2B2C platform. In the last two years, however, we have been able to dispel the initial reservations of many market players, so that we now have five of the ten largest German insurers represented on the platform. In the mobility sector, for example, we theoretically have access to over 25 million car insurance customers.
Munich Startup: Where would you like to be in one year, where would you like to be in five years?
Alex Hund: We are currently working flat out on new use cases for a wide range of areas that will go live in the coming months. In particular, we are in the process of optimizing existing processes so that we can provide the use cases more quickly. We always have the end customer’s experience in mind and want to provide them with exactly the right services to meet their needs.
Munich offers an innovation-friendly environment
Munich Startup: How have you experienced Munich as a startup location so far?
Alex Hund: Munich is a very good location for us as a startup in the insurance industry. On the one hand, we have access to a large number of insurers here, but also to many service providers that are suitable for our use cases. Munich also offers access to highly qualified talent, a supportive network and an innovation-friendly environment.
Munich Startup: Hidden Champion or Shooting Star?
Alex Hund: Partly both. As we focus on the niche market of value-added services in the context of insurance and have a high level of innovative strength, we partly meet the definition of a hidden champion. However, we still have to prove in the next few years that we can achieve stable success and continuous growth over the years. 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 that we really do meet the needs of the entire industry.
