Tapoly CEO talks Insurtech MGAs & Gig Economy Opportunities

Janthana Kaenprakhamroy is the founder and CEO of Tapoly. She was named Insurance Woman of the Year at the Women in Finance Awards 2021, listed by Forbes as number six of the Top 100 Women Founders to watch and was named in the Insurance Business UK’s Elite Women List 2021 and 2022. She is also a chartered accountant and former internal audit director at top-tier investment banks. We caught up with her to find out more.
Can you tell us about your role and responsibilities?
I am the founder and CEO of Tapoly, an award-winning digital managing general agent (MGA) providing a full stack of commercial lines insurance specifically for SMEs and freelancers. In addition we also provide a SaaS solution to connect insurers with their distribution partners to aid communication, data transfer and enable automation. We build bespoke, end-to-end platforms encompassing the whole customer journey, but can also integrate our APIs within existing systems. My responsibilities are very varied from marketing and sales, operation, finance to investment and staff management. - no two days are the same.
What is your point of difference as a business?
Flexibility is one of the key points of difference we have as a business; it's particularly important for freelancers and gig economy workers that might be working short contracts that require certain cover or those that work multiple different roles. We try to provide the most flexible cover that is on-demand where possible.
In addition, speed of quotes and coverage is another problem we aim to solve. Traditionally, when buying insurance, customers enter their data into one system and brokers then have to re-enter that data onto other systems that are not aligned so they can then get quotes. This lengthy process isn’t suited to the requirements of the modern customer. We have real-time, AI-driven pricing systems so that customers can have instant insurance access wherever possible.
Alongside this, there is still a digital transformation gap in the insurance industry. Having previously worked in another traditional sector that has also been resistant to digital transformation, like investment banking, proved the pain points of embedding technology within legacy systems and processes. Tapoly serves to solve this problem in the insurance space with our SaaS offering of APIs and end-to-end bespoke systems.
What technology are you most looking forward to using more of?
Out of all emerging technologies, AI and big data are most highly targeted by insurers. They're an essential part of building an end-to-end automatic system for the fast growing embedded insurance market where automation increases competition.
What has been your career highlight prior to your current role?
I am a former chartered accountant and internal audit director at investment banks, having previously worked at UBS, Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan, and BNP Paribas. This accumulated experience across lines of businesses and regions enabled me to have gained tremendous knowledge of regulation both regionally and globally, as well as in business operations and team management. It gave me a very solid foundation for the CEO role I have today.
What has been your highlight in your current role?
Founding Tapoly has been my biggest highlight to date. The journey hasn't been easy but it's certainly been the most rewarding. I think I have learnt more in the last six years than in the previous 10! I am constantly faced with exciting challenges and it takes me out of my comfort zone every day, which I believe to be a very positive thing!
What is your leadership style?
Being as inclusive a leader as possible is extremely important to me. I am committed to creating space for everyone to shine within my own business and wider society. To this end, many of the roles at Tapoly are performed by women and people from diverse backgrounds. I have mentored women throughout my career and I regularly speak at industry events to encourage more people to get involved in the insurance and technology industries.
Similarly, I always try to maintain a growth mindset. Being a business owner means facing challenges each day so I am always learning from those around me and expanding my network. I think it is so important to maintain the values to support learning and development, such as reliability, working hard and being on time. This growth mindset also helps to build my resilience, which is a particularly important skill to have as a leader.
What exciting plans do you have coming up as an organisation?
I’m always looking ahead to the next opportunity, so I have many plans for the rest of this year and beyond. I’m currently most excited about our plans to expand into emerging countries as well as continuing to build on our diverse range of insurance products for workers in the under-served gig economy. We have a few incredibly exciting projects in the pipeline that I can’t wait to be able to talk about soon.