When Carl Carter (pictured) first joined CPP Group in his new role as UK country CEO, he highlighted that the business had its “sleeves rolled up to take on some really big brand opportunities”, with particular emphasis on those afforded by Blink Parametric as part of the wider group.
In addition to his role as UK CEO, Carter has since been appointed COO of Blink Parametric - a CPP Group company which serves the consumer market globally - at a time when parametric solutions are truly coming into their own. The significant uptick in interest around parametrics, combined with the revival of the travel industry, is creating significant growth and opportunity in this market, he said, and CPP Group is looking to capitalise.
“It’s not just around travel, but at the minute we are flat out, in a good way, working through the travel insurance opportunities that are being presented to Blink Parametric,” he said. “We’re supporting travel insurers and travel insurance brands worldwide with our propositions. Blink Parametric is rightly seen as a global leader in this space and we’re currently focused on developing that further.
“The future of insurance is parametric solutions. With parametrics you can give real-time solutions to customers while reducing costs and also removing fraud, in many cases, for the insurer. This is while offering the customer help when and where they need it most, rather than the traditional old-school insurance approach of having them fill out a form and wait weeks to get paid. We’re literally able to help customers before they even realise they have a problem. And how cool is that?”
For Carter who has some 25 years’ experience in global travel insurance, the opportunity at hand to support the Blink Parametric team in interacting with major global insurers on solutions for sectors including travel, environment and business interruption is incredibly exciting.
Zeroing on the travel component, he noted that the travel insurance sector hasn’t changed much in the last 20 to 30 years so these new developments “are incredibly well-timed to the changing understanding of parametric solutions occurring across the global marketplace”. More and more insurers are actively reaching out for support in meeting the demand they’re seeing from clients and brokers alike, he said.
“Blink Parametric and CPP Group actively participate with insurers,” he said. “They see they’ve got an opportunity and they want us to help deliver the technology that gives a real-time solution to an old school problem. We’re getting great traction with some major global insurers and their innovation teams who have approached us first asking us to help. Being in the position of having prospective global partners knocking on our door asking to work with us is a fantastic place to be.”
Among some businesses, particularly the older brands, Carter noted that there could be a concern that they are going to have to play catch-up with the more nimble and digitally-focused insurtech brands that are starting to see significant growth. While CPP and Blink are capitalising on the demand they’re seeing from global insurers, he said, they’re not resting on their laurels - but instead focusing on continuing to evolve their proposition.
Blink’s parametric solutions are multi-region, multi-currency and multi-lingual - and so, a lot of Carter’s and Blink Parametric’s CEO Sid Mouncey’s focuses right now are on continuing to build out its team to bring in the right people to support the globally-orientated growth of its parametric solutions.
On this front, Carter said: “It has been amazing to oversee the growth of the business so far and to work with a team so passionate about creating real-time assistance solutions for customers and businesses alike.”
“We’ve just hired a new colleague for the business development team to help support our growth,” he added. “And we’re increasing our development team to support the onboarding of new propositions. It’s really exciting to be part of something different and lively, that gives benefit to all parties in the transaction. That’s what’s good about this. It’s great for the insurer – it reduces costs, it increases efficiency, it reduces fraud and it increases differentiation. We’ve got a great team at Blink and at CPP, and while I might be one of the people in the spotlight, just as important are the people working within our teams in the UK and around the world.”
In addition to growing out its internal team and striking up new partnerships with global insurers, Carter and his team are also actively exploring additional acquisition opportunities in 2022. CPP Group and Blink Parametric are looking for acquisitions that fit in with its distribution and technology ethos, he said, whether that’s systems providers or product providers – and that’s both in the UK and internationally.
“Overall,” he said, “it’s just great to be supporting the return of society and life as we knew it before the pandemic. It’s great to be supporting insurers globally and helping them give greater consumer confidence at a time when there’s consumer uncertainty. Whether that’s in the energy insurance market or the home insurance market. Whether it’s climate-related or travel-related. Or whether it’s just the changing way technology is used in the home.”
