INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
French startup Alan closed a $28.3 million Series A round a few months ago
Index Ventures is leading the round, Xavier Niel is participating as well as existing investors CNP Assurances, Partech and Portag3 Ventures
LP.Alan wants to make health insurance as simple as subscribing to a software-as-a-service product
It starts with clear pricing and transparent reimbursement policies
For instance, you can cover a 30-year-old employee for €55 per month.The price will be exactly the same for all types of companies
The only thing that changes is that you’ll pay a bit less for younger employees and more for older employees
Each employee can choose to cover their significant other for the same price, and their kids for an extra €40 per month.And then, Alan is
following the startup playbook
The overall user experience is much nicer than the interface of a traditional health insurance.You get a modern dashboard where you can
control and view all your health expenses, a mobile app and good customer support
You can also add life insurance from CNP Assurances from the same interface.This simple promise seems to be working quite well as Alan now
covers 7,000 employees across 850 companies
As you can see, the startup has been focusing on small companies as it’s easier to make them switch.Alan co-founder and CEO Jean-Charles
Samuelian also told me that small companies are underserved by big insurance companies
There’s no reason you should pay more because you work for a small company.With today’s funding round, Alan wants to offer the same
The company plans to grow from 22 employees right now to 80 employees by December 2018.“The goal is to reach €100 million in annual
recurring revenue as quickly as possible,” Samuelian told me
The startup currently generates between €5 and €6 million in annual recurring revenue.Eventually, Alan wants to expand beyond France and
address other European markets
seems like a big market, it’s already quite crowded
Samuelian thinks there will be a bigger opportunity by building a European company
It’ll take quite a bit of time as regulation is different in each European country.Recently, Alan has been focused on building a solid
infrastructure, optimizing processes and automating tasks
In many ways, Samuelian still thinks about Alan as a tech company
“We want to build the Apple or Google of Europe,” he said.Alan can beat competitors on price and flexibility by building a tech product
that actually works — that’s how you can serve 7,000 people with a lean team.Disclosure: I share a personal connection with an executive
