Meet the insurtech: Waffle

Quentin Coolen, co-founder and CEO of Waffle, an insurtech that set out to make it easier for consumers to get coverage, found data management key to its offering.

"At the very beginning, we wanted to create our own products like everybody else," he said. "Then we realized it would not be possible, it would take too long, and it would not be affordable." 

Launched in early 2022 after beginning development in 2018, Waffle offers renters insurance, pet insurance, life insurance and personal cyber policies. The company's goal is to provide personalized insurance including the types and levels of coverage, matched to the insured from the underwriter that has the best offering for them.

"On the data side, we collect variables because we sell many products," Coolen said. "We collect variables across many lines of business. That gives us a horizontal view of the consumer."

Waffle anonymizes policyholder data and partners with carriers including Boost, Ladder, Chubb, Assurant, Crum & Forster and State National. With insights derived from that data, Waffle can learn what insurance products to cross-sell and improve loss ratios, Coolen explained. Loss ratios have become a stress point for the insurance industry lately, especially in California, New York and Texas, he noted. By feeding policyholder data into a holistic risk model, Waffle produces insights that can improve customer experiences and recommendations made to customers, Coolen added. 

At the same time, Waffle aims to provide policyholders a quality product, without many exclusions. "We choose the providers very, very carefully," said Coolen. "The notion of having a great quality product all in one place, potentially with instant coverage, is really valuable now."

This means that Waffle doesn't necessarily compete only based on the price of premiums. "Traditionally, the cheapest insurance is a bad risk that is bad for everyone," Coolen said. "We emphasize the uniqueness of having everything in the same place where you don't have to go to different carriers. We explain in plain language what the coverage is and what it does and doesn't cover, so it's clear for everyone."

Before launching Waffle with co-founders Michael Li and Sam Barnsley, Coolen served as a human rights lawyer at the United Nations and taught that subject at Columbia University. While working on the UN's development agenda in 2015, forging partnerships with the World Bank and the insurance industry, he learned about the needs of insurance providers and insureds.

"We're a very small startup, but from the beginning, we took a different approach from the big insurtechs at the time," Coolen said. "There is room to improve the experience for consumers and businesses in terms of insurance. But the only way to do this is to partner very, very closely with the industry. That's something that you see throughout our journey and that's why we have the partners that we have."

Waffle chose its corporate name because it aims to close gaps between types of insurance. This month [in January], Waffle added the ability to embed itself in API form with carrier partners, growing its distribution. Waffle also has plans to add types of coverage in the coming months, according to Coolen.