NatWest and cloud accounting software company FreeAgent have partnered with global specialist insurer Hiscox to “change the way that small businesses are able to access insurance for their specific needs”.
FreeAgent will now enable its customers to obtain a quote on insurance products from Hiscox directly from within its accounting software.
The partnership will allow both providers to understand how through ‘smart’ AI, financial data from FreeAgent can be used to identify business owners that potentially need insurance, generate quotes to fit their individual requirements, and make it as easy as possible to purchase the solution that best suits them, both now and as their business evolves.
The partnership also represents the latest step in a wider strategy that both NatWest and FreeAgent are undertaking to “revolutionise small business admin” through the use of Open Banking data and other innovative Fintech integrations.
Ed Molyneux, CEO and co-founder of FreeAgent, said: “This is a really unique partnership that we hope will be a game-changer when it comes to small business insurance.
“Not only will we be able to provide smart quotes from Hiscox to our customers based on their individual requirements, but we’ll also be able to facilitate the whole insurance purchase journey from right inside our software.”
He added: “In the short term, this removes the time-consuming process of looking for insurance providers and reviewing quotes, giving small business owners more time to focus on actually running their ventures.
“But, as we know business circumstances can change quickly, we also want to fundamentally change the way that small businesses actually interact with their insurance – by removing the need to manually update policies as major business changes occur and spelling an end to the annual renewal process.”
Rob Moore, UK head of partnerships at Hiscox, said: “We’ve been working with small businesses for a long time and are passionate about removing complexity for SMEs when it comes to buying insurance; the more we can reduce the administration burden for a small business owner, the more time they have to focus on growing their company.
“That’s why we’re pleased to be launching this new partnership with NatWest and FreeAgent, who have SME convenience at their core. These types of data-connected and integrated partnerships are a growing area of interest as we look at intelligent uses of data, so our work with both partners is an exciting step.”
