Since launching a year ago, LEAGUE hasnât pulled any punches in its quest to dominate the health insurance space. Under founder Mike Serbinisâ watch, the last nine months have been a period of aggressive growth for the company, which allows small businesses to offer more customized benefits plans for their employees through its platform. In June, LEAGUE raised a significant $25 million Series A round, and in August welcomed former Sun Life Financial executive Lori Casselman to its team as chief health officer.
Today, LEAGUE announced the launch of a new suite of insurance products to its health benefits portfolio, which includes comprehensive coverage for unexpected emergencies, including life, accidental death and dismemberment, and disability coverage. RBC Insurance is LEAGUEâs first partner to underwrite its expanded offerings.
âIn the nine months that weâve been selling our benefits platform, the bulk of sales has been in spending accounts or health and wellness services,” Serbinis told BetaKit. “And over that time, weâve had an overwhelming demand from customers who say âthis is such an amazing experience, the paper and all these forms and frustration with existing health insurance is so out of date and difficult, so why canât you provide health insurance?ââ
Serbinis said that unlike other financial services verticals, which are already seeing disruption on their shores, the heavy regulation of the health insurance space has been a major barrier to entry for smaller startups with few resources. For this reason, health insurance companies havenât had the incentives to embrace digital processes and partner with startups.
“Until now, these companies havenât really seen a lot of competition from an upstart but I think thatâs changed forever.”
– Mike Serbinis, LEAGUE
âWe straddle FinTech and healthtech, and when it comes to peopleâs lives, itâs way more complicated and regulated,” Serbinis said. “It not only has financial regulation, but also privacy protection, security, and at the end of the day, peopleâs lives are at stake. As a result, until now, these companies havenât really seen a lot of competition from an upstart but I think thatâs changed forever. They’re going to see us continue to accelerate and there will no doubt be other players entering the market.â
Serbinis believes the sea change for the slow-moving health insurance industry â which he said is more about minimizing use than encouraging people to be healthy â began in part thanks to LEAGUEâs highly-publicized funding round back in June. Since then, Serbinis said that the company has been âinundated with insurance carriers, brokers, and consultants that want to jump ship and work here and partner with us. Theyâre on these big, immovable ships whereas weâre absolutely fast, nimble, and weâre a group of people that have built consumer experiences for hundreds of millions of people around the world around the world,â he said. âItâs been a little overwhelming and I suspect when we make this announcement, that volume level will only go up. Weâre being watched very closely.â
When it came to finding a partner to underwrite its new suite of products, LEAGUE went through a competitive process talking to about 16 to 18 carriers, wanting a partner that shared its vision, could be flexible in integrating into the LEAGUE platform, and comfortable with moving fast. âWhat we found was that some of them were looking for just another channel or broker to sell an existing product through, which was not interesting for us,â said Serbinis. âSome were dealing with timelines that included many months and years, which also wouldnât work for us. And some of them werenât getting our vision, because ultimately this is about the end consumer. RBC had all three qualities.â
Serbinis also said that many health insurance startups popping up right now, such as Zenefits, are more focused on disrupting the brokers by offering health plans through an app, but havenât built an end-to-end solution for employees. While Serbinis wouldnât touch on future plans for the company, he did reveal that LEAGUE is now seeing triple-digit growth month-over-month, and is well on its way to surpass a billion dollars in premiums and contracts by 2018.
âI have a million percent conviction that this is the future; weâre moving to a model thatâs about you as the consumer, and it’s personalized, digital, and itâs easier, faster, cheaper, and better,â said Serbinis. âPeople get this is the way it has to be, and if you imagine a future thatâs not digital, not personalized, not consumer-centric, and not about keeping people healthy, youâre smoking.â