Pluto

Idea

Introduction

Pluto helps travel-loving millennials feel confident they're protected if something goes wrong when they’re away, by providing hassle-free travel insurance through their smartphone. We’re different because of our jargon-free policies with transparent pricing, the ability to claim on your phone in <10 mins and with human help around the clock.

We're launching a mobile app to give our customers instant access to airport lounges if their flight's delayed and 24/7 access to a virtual UK GP, via Babylon if they're not feeling well.

We're continuing to release features that further differentiate us from traditional insurers and helps us work towards our mission of helping people make the most of their travels.

We’re disrupting the £160bn millennial travel market. Starting with insurance and broadening our focus over time by helping people prepare for a safe trip, taking care of them whilst they're away and having their back if something goes wrong.

We hope you'll join us on our journey.

Intended impact

Our experience tells us that perceptions & satisfaction towards the travel insurance industry are at an all-time low meaning there's a huge opportunity to bring a fresh perspective.

70% of customers aren’t satisfied with their current insurer & 38% of 18 - 34 year olds don’t even buy travel insurance when going away. We've found 3 reasons for this. Travel insurance is confusing & complicated. Buying it is painful & slow, and millennials don't trust insurers to help when things go wrong.

These insights led us to the proposition of hassle-free travel insurance through your smartphone.

- Jargon-free policies with transparent pricing. We've made it easy to tailor your cover & understand what you're buying, so you only pay for what you need.

- You can submit claims online in <10 mins. With our innovative claims experience, gone are the days of printing & posting forms.

- Round the clock human support. Bringing the human side back to insurance, helping our customers in their time of need & rebuilding trust along the way.

Substantial accomplishments to date

Pluto's achieved a lot in its first 12 months:

- We built and launched an insurance business in less than 6 months.

- We designed and delivered one of the market-leading products with dynamic pricing and a fully online claims experience in under 4 months.

- We joined and graduated from the FCA's Innovation Sandbox, for the UK's most innovative businesses.

- We partnered with Zurich Insurance, one of the largest insurers in Europe.

- We've raised £430k to date with investors in Director and C-suite positions in finance, marketing & insurance.

- We ran a pilot with Monzo and have partnered with travel startup LuckyTrip.

- We assembled 4 advisors specialising in insurance, marketing, product & behavioural psychology.

Since launching in Dec last year, we’ve been:

- Covered in TechCrunch, BBC, Monocle, Which, Mashable, InsuranceTimes and many more.

- Nominated for Best Newcomer in the Insurance Choice Awards and are a finalist for the Insurance Times' Tech & Innovation Awards.

- Won the British Airways' Future of Travel Tech competition.

- In discussion with 2 leading UK challenger banks about a distribution partnership.

- Growing fast, with an average 50% MoM growth over the last 2 months.

- Ranked in the top 3 travel insurers on Trustpilot, with reviews like the "future of travel insurance" & "if Monzo were to do travel insurance, this would be it".

Monetisation strategy

Pluto is disrupting the £160bn millennial travel market & we're starting with the £780m UK market (2018 gross written travel insurance premiums). To our knowledge, we’re the only D2C startup in Europe disrupting travel insurance, giving us a significant first-mover advantage.

We generate our revenue from the policies we sell as well as other value-added services we'll offer.

1) We're currently an insurance intermediary (like a broker) & we make a commission on each policy we sell. We plan to become a Managing General Agent in the next 12 months, to take on more of the management of the policy & increase our portion of the premium. In the long term, we want to become an insurance carrier, allowing total control of the product & effectively transforming the entire insurance premium into our revenue.

2) We’ll also earn commission from new services we’re soon to release - E.g. Helping customers book transfers, find the right vaccinations, claim EU flight compensation & provide recommendations for trusted trip providers.

Use of proceeds

This Crowdfund is part of a larger seed round, with £300k already invested. The money raised will be used for:

Product development: 34%

We'll continue to invest in our product to deliver more holistic travel cover. Helping people prepare for a safer adventure, taking care of them whilst they're away & having their back if something goes wrong. Next big features releases include trip planning tools, free lounge access if your flight's delayed & 24/7 access to a UK GP from your phone.

Growth: 28%

We’ll invest in paid advertising to build awareness. This will be done with a data-driven approach to avoid wasting money. We’ll also integrate with travel & finance brands to access their millennial users.

Team: 28%

We’ll be hiring top talent to help us deliver our product roadmap, support our customers & grow our customer base.

Operations: 10%

Office space, regulatory costs, accountants…you get the picture. As a regulated business dedicated to doing things properly, it’s essential.

Investor Rewards

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