Getsafe

The best ideas are often born out of the idea of solving a current problem, and that’s the case with Getsafe; simplifying and digitalising the insurance industry. When Christian Wiens, now CEO, broke his landlord’s glass door, he found the process of solving the issue frustrating, time-consuming and challenging, despite having all the insurances in place. He recognised this industry needed bringing into the 21^st century, but he could not do it alone. He teamed up with Marius Simon, now CTO, following a founders’ network meetup held over Facebook – and, through these chance events, one of Europe’s most exciting and fastest-growing scaleups was created.

Getsafe officially launched in Germany back in 2018, and with its strong technological backbone, offers liability, contents and car insurance in Germany and the UK. Getsafe replaces complex and manual paperwork with smart bots and automation, allowing customers to file claims or change their policy cover in real-time, with just a few clicks. With headquarters in Heidelberg, Germany, and offices in London and Berlin employing more than 150 people the company serves over 300,000 customers worldwide. This, together with the $116 million raised to date and the status of one of Europe’s top 10 funded companies, made us itching to find out more about their international scaleup journey.

Having high ambitions of becoming Europe’s leading digital insurer, Getsafe applied for its own insurance license in 2020. In October 2021, Getsafe received its insurance license from Germany’s financial regulator, BaFin, allowing it to accelerate its expansion to the rest of Europe.

Despite Brexit, Getsafe chose to expand to the UK back in 2020, with it being crowned the biggest Fintech market in Europe and with digitisation deeply embedded in society. Familiarity with NEO-banks like Monzo and Revolut meant the younger generation was already open to the idea of using smartphones for financial services, and Getsafe saw the opportunity of them being open to using smartphones for their insurance services too.

However, it was not without challenges. The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted Getsafe’s rapid expansion plans, with travel restrictions and reduced consumer spending acting as a hurdle. Getsafe learned the hard way of not underestimating the complexity of expanding to new markets. Despite both Brexit and Covid-19 disruptions, Getsafe had a sharp vision and with the help of Goodwille established a UK subsidiary based in London and started hiring a UK based team to provide British customers with trust and credibility. Goodwille helped Getsafe lay the foundation in the UK so the firm could focus on scaling its business through sales and clever digital marketing.

Daniel Treiber, CFO of Getsafe: “Partnering with Goodwille was very helpful as they organised the whole practical side of our UK arm, from the initial company registration, accounting and HR & Payroll support as we started to grow a UK based team. Having all this administrative help meant that I and my team could focus on the commercial side of the business and client work. Organising these processes ourselves and making sure they were compliant would have been time-consuming so we are grateful for the support we received in the early stages of our UK market expansion.”