Secrets Of A Serial Insurtech Entrepreneur

Karn Saroya knows how to build and raise seed funding for insurtech ventures. In this episode of Reinventing Insurance, Karn joins Paul Ricard and shares his secrets, challenges, and experiences as a serial insurtech entrepreneur. Over the last 10 years, Karn has launched three successful businesses — the latest is Re, a Web3 reinsurance startup valued at $100 million post money.

Tune in as our conversation discusses the latest happenings in the insurtech space, technology breakthroughs— such as AI and Web3 — that are redefining growth opportunities, and Karn's broad spectrum of experiences with launching three successful startups.  

Re aims to become a decentralized Lloyds of London, and as a De-Fi insurance protocol, Re  provides transparency and backs insurance programs that cover risks and capital for areas such as workers compensation, agriculture, and aviation.

Karn started his career as an Oliver Wyman consultant, advising leaders in the world's largest companies. In 2013, he co-founded an e-commerce fashion startup called Stylekick, a  marketplace for bloggers, designers and fashion influencers to upload their lookbooks to make them shoppable.

Shopify purchased Stylekick in 2015, and Karn moved into the insurtech space, launching Cover with the goal of making buying insurance coverage an easy, stress-free, less intimidating task. Cover's app quickly became popular, ranking #1, and allowed customers to take photos of items they wanted to insure, such as cars, homes, and even pets.  

Our Reinventing Insurance podcast explores best practices for taking a CustomerFirst approach to innovation within Insurance. Throughout this series, host Paul Ricard discusses lessons, challenges, and new ways of working with guests who will share their first-hand experiences.

Subscribe for more on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google | Amazon Music

Featured Guest

Karn Saroya is the Co-founder and CEO at Re. Karn is responsible for operations, business development and investor relations at Re, an on-chain reinsurer.

Karn’s first company, Stylekick, was acquired by Shopify in 2015, he then left to scale Cover.com into a national insurance platform over the next 7 years. Prior to entrepreneurship, he was a management consultant at Oliver Wyman in their financial services practice.

Karn holds a Bachelor of Commerce from Queen’s University with Distinction and a Master of Finance from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he attended as a Fulbright Scholar. He is also a Y Combinator fellow and alumnus.

Our Host

Paul Ricard is a Partner and Head of Asia Pacific Insurance and Asset Management at Oliver Wyman, as well as a member of the CustomerFirst platform, which focuses on designing and building digital solutions, starting with customer needs and challenges.

Paul has worked with large financial-services institutions across the Americas and Asia-Pacific regions. He is also actively connected with the Insurtech and Fintech communities, and has facilitated strong ties between Insurtechs and incumbents.

His areas of expertise include designing and building greenfield digital solutions and implementing large-scale digital transformations.

Karn Saroya knows how to build and raise seed funding for insurtech ventures. In this episode of Reinventing Insurance, Karn joins Paul Ricard and shares his secrets, challenges, and experiences as a serial insurtech entrepreneur. Over the last 10 years, Karn has launched three successful businesses — the latest is Re, a Web3 reinsurance startup valued at $100 million post money.

Tune in as our conversation discusses the latest happenings in the insurtech space, technology breakthroughs— such as AI and Web3 — that are redefining growth opportunities, and Karn's broad spectrum of experiences with launching three successful startups.  

Re aims to become a decentralized Lloyds of London, and as a De-Fi insurance protocol, Re  provides transparency and backs insurance programs that cover risks and capital for areas such as workers compensation, agriculture, and aviation.

Karn started his career as an Oliver Wyman consultant, advising leaders in the world's largest companies. In 2013, he co-founded an e-commerce fashion startup called Stylekick, a  marketplace for bloggers, designers and fashion influencers to upload their lookbooks to make them shoppable.

Shopify purchased Stylekick in 2015, and Karn moved into the insurtech space, launching Cover with the goal of making buying insurance coverage an easy, stress-free, less intimidating task. Cover's app quickly became popular, ranking #1, and allowed customers to take photos of items they wanted to insure, such as cars, homes, and even pets.  

Our Reinventing Insurance podcast explores best practices for taking a CustomerFirst approach to innovation within Insurance. Throughout this series, host Paul Ricard discusses lessons, challenges, and new ways of working with guests who will share their first-hand experiences.

Subscribe for more on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google | Amazon Music

Featured Guest

Karn Saroya is the Co-founder and CEO at Re. Karn is responsible for operations, business development and investor relations at Re, an on-chain reinsurer.

Karn’s first company, Stylekick, was acquired by Shopify in 2015, he then left to scale Cover.com into a national insurance platform over the next 7 years. Prior to entrepreneurship, he was a management consultant at Oliver Wyman in their financial services practice.

Karn holds a Bachelor of Commerce from Queen’s University with Distinction and a Master of Finance from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he attended as a Fulbright Scholar. He is also a Y Combinator fellow and alumnus.

Our Host

Paul Ricard is a Partner and Head of Asia Pacific Insurance and Asset Management at Oliver Wyman, as well as a member of the CustomerFirst platform, which focuses on designing and building digital solutions, starting with customer needs and challenges.

Paul has worked with large financial-services institutions across the Americas and Asia-Pacific regions. He is also actively connected with the Insurtech and Fintech communities, and has facilitated strong ties between Insurtechs and incumbents.

His areas of expertise include designing and building greenfield digital solutions and implementing large-scale digital transformations.