Fintech Company Hype Forges Partnership with Lokky

Hype, an Italian challenger bank focused on consumer banking and controlled by illimity and fintech company Fabrick, has entered into a partnership with Lokky, the first Italian digital insurance broker focused on micro-enterprises, professionals, and freelancers. The offer of the insurtech has been integrated into Hype Business, the new offer dedicated to sole proprietorships and freelancers with a VAT number, available through a dedicated app.

The collaboration between the two companies allows Hype Business clients to access Lokky’s personalized, simple, and totally digital service to subscribe to the insurance coverage that best meets the needs of their business. In particular, customers have now access directly from Hype Business to a modular, flexible, and focused on different types of insurance coverage, including multi-risk policies, cyber risk protection, and professional liability. The available covers represent the first phase of the development of the partnership; in fact, the two companies will work to introduce exclusive and innovative products that meet the needs of Hype’s customers.

Paolo Tanfoglio, CEO of Lokky, commented, “Together with Hype we will be a partner to freelancers and small businesses, giving them the opportunity to work without worries related to possible risky exposures, and to maximize their business success thanks to our joint services.”

Antonio Valitutti, CEO of Hype, added: “In response to the increase in the number of those who choose to take an independent professional path, we wanted to offer a product declined for the specific needs of freelancers and small businesses. In fact, our offer is constantly evolving, defined to meet and anticipate the needs of the market. To guarantee the best customer experience, we select partners that stand out for their innovative and excellent offerings. In Lokky we have found a company that shares our same philosophy and places the customer’s need for simplicity and fluidity at the center of its proposal.”

Read more about Hype and its partnership with Lokky, and find other important business news with the Born2Invest mobile app.

Hype offers three banking products

Hype has more than 100 employees and more than 10 partners from the banking and non-banking world, including, in addition to illimity, Banca Sella, Prima.it, Zurich, Gimme5, Switcho, and via fintech. Hype offers three banking products: Start (completely free account, up to a maximum of 2,500 euros of annual deposit); Next (at a cost of 2.90 euros with no deposit limits, launched last December; see another BeBeez article) and Premium (with additional value-added services). Hype is also a payment tool: thanks to integration with ApplePay and GooglePay, it is possible to make payments directly from the cell phone, with the possibility of using the Hype card to withdraw without commissions from ATMs around the world.

Last September, Hype unveiled its new radar, investment, piggy bank, and mortgage functions. The former connects the accounts you hold with other institutions as well, giving customers a clear view of their overall financial holdings and becoming a key access point for analyzing their savings and investment capabilities as well. The service is built on the new AISP and PISP license obtained from the Bank of Italy, which is in addition to the Istituto di Moneta Elettronica (IMEL) license received in June 2020.

The challenger bank in March 2020 had also launched Hype Bitcoin, in collaboration with another Italian fintech: Conio. Hype’s current sources of revenue are fees on the use of certain products, margins from Hype card transactions, and referral fees (commercial retrocessions from partners for managing the customer interface). Revenues are well-balanced across the three sources, but today most of them come from transactions and fees, as the company is still enriching its third-party product offering. In this regard, Valitutti anticipated last September that Hype is exploring integrations with buy now pay later (BNPL) operators. The challenger bank aims to reach profit in 2023 and 3 million customers two years later.

Besides Hype, Lokky has also signed partnerships with Aviva Italia, Sara Assicurazioni, Vittoria Assicurazioni and Tokio Marine. In fact, the insurtech acts as an online distributor of policies in a way that is integrated with the information systems of insurance companies, through its website or its platform, which is also available as a white label for its partners. Its typical clients are artisans, traders, and professionals, who are in fact little followed by traditional insurance companies and straddle the line between retail and corporate.

Lokky for its part was founded in 2019 by ad Paolo Tanfoglio and Sauro Mostarda (executive director)

The offer of the startup covers the insurance needs of more than 200 types of micro-businesses, professionals, and freelancers, with coverage for civil liability, professional liability, legal protection, accidents, fire, theft, and to other damages. The proprietary algorithm, developed by Lokky’s data scientists and already tested on more than 50,000 real customers, has made the insurance consulting process completely digital and automated through advanced customer profiling and related product customization. The startup was born to be ever closer to the customer and its platform is natively ready to be integrated by external partners, both digital and physical, financial and otherwise.

Lokky in 2021 had pre-announced the launch of a round, to be closed by the end of the year (see other BeBeez article). To date, however, the round has not yet started. In 2020 Lokky won the award for the best digital product for the corporate market at the first edition of the Italian Insurtech Summit, organized by the Italian Insurtech Association. Lokky, has also been selected as a partner for the new Vittoria hub, a physical incubation space for insurtech and open innovation, inaugurated by Vittoria Assicurazioni (see other BeBeez article). In addition, the startup was included in the prestigious DIA TOP 100 Insurtech of 2019 and selected at Finovate 2020. It recently won the award in the “Non-Life Product Innovation” category for “the suitability of the digital solution of the multi-risk non-life product for bancassurance” at the sixth edition of the Future Bancassurance Awards. Lokky has been operating as an online insurance broker since January 2020 and has been growing ever since, aided by the coronavirus, which has forced people to do their business online and accelerated innovation in the insurance industry.

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(Featured image by Aymanejed via Pixabay)

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