Pet insurance company Lassie, today announced its expansion to France following rapid growth in Sweden and Germany.
With a recent Series B funding round of €23 million led by Balderton Capital, bringing total funding to €36.5 million, Lassie is ready to bring preventative pet insurance at scale to France.
France ranks among the top three European countries in terms of pet ownership, with more than 53 per cent of French households owning at least one dog or cat — 68 per cent of French owners seeing them as true family members. As a result, pet owners spend €1224 per year on their pets.
Yet, many French pet owners struggle with the rising cost of veterinary care., forcing them to choose between animal’s healthcare and other financial commitments. As an example a simple operation for a fracture can cost up to €500.
Addressing this growing concern, Lassie has redefined pet insurance through launching the world's first preventative pet insurance. Beyond providing a simple insurance platform, the company coaches owners to better care for their four-legged family members through courses and advice in return for reduced prices for its customers.
Founded in 2021, Lassie now approaches 100,000 customers, covering more than 400 dog breeds and 200 cat breeds. Since its launch in Germany last year, Lassie is now experiencing rapid acceleration in demand and is experiencing annual growth of almost +300 per cent.
I spoke to CEO Hedda Båverud Olsson, who was inspired to start Lassie by her mother, a veterinarian, to learn more.
According to Olsson:
“Our four-legged family members are some of the most valuable parts of our lives - they provide love, companionship and happiness. In return, we want to ensure that they have long, happy, and most importantly, healthy lives.”
Disrupting an increasingly crowded sector
Pet insurance is a competitive market with a variety of incumbents.
Olsson attributes the company’s retention to a variety of things, including its diverse composition with its leaders Hedda Båverud Olsson (ex strategy consultant at McKinsey), Sophie Wilkinson (ex head of pet insurance at If P&C), and Johan Jönsson (ex full-stack developer at King and Spotify).
The company offers a preventive app that contains unlimited preventive care content from vets and rewarding pet parents for their knowledge with price reductions of up to €50. Olsson details:
“We offer to our customers a preventative package of €220 that covers chipping, vaccination, sterilisation etc. There is no waiting period for preventative packages.
“The key reason for our high retention rate is that, apart from building strong insurance products, we are committed to being a preventive partner throughout the pet's life through our app, which over 90 per cent of our customers use, we offer courses for how to improve the daily life of our beloved pets.
This enables us to build loyalty and trust which leads to deep long-term relationships with our members.”
Further, pets are insured from the age of eight weeks without a maximum age limit. Lassie offers comprehensive packages for our customers with 3 products with no fixed deductible, up to €3000 reimbursement annually. Fair pricing is built in house and tailored per dog and cat.
Olsson also explained that the company offers local and in-house claims and customer success teams “which gives us great agility - we are able to collect feedback rapidly and leverage those for adjusting our offer or web features.”
In Lassie’s app you can learn more on how to prevent injuries, collect points and get rewarded with a cheaper insurance price. The company also recommends healthy products within its e-commerce store. The store is open /am -10pm Monday to Saturday, with Olsson asserting “Injuries don’t just happen 9-5pm.”
She shared:
“The key reason for our high retention rate is that, apart from building strong insurance products, we are committed to being a preventive partner throughout the pet's life through our app, which over 90 per cent of our customers use, and we offer courses for how to improve the daily life of our beloved pets.
This enables us to build loyalty and trust which leads to deep long-term relationships with our members.”
Further, the company automates claims through AI. This results in greater efficiency and the need for fewer employees.
The challenge of entering new markets
Lassie is now live in three markets (Sweden, Germany and France) and its focus for 2024 is to go deeper into all of these markets both in terms of grabbing more market share for our insurance but also to offer more preventive products to our customers.
Olsson highlighted the challenges of navigating different regulatory environments and ensuring compliance with local laws and regulations related to pet insurance and the need to “understand the specific needs, preferences, and behaviors of pet owners in the new market resulting in adapting USPs per country e.g lots of sales calls in DE/FR.”
She advises startups expanding to new markets to hire local teams (including in house customer centric job positions) , iterate rapidly on website/app/product, and be sure to adapt distribution strategy per country and create strong partnerships to develop awareness.
“For example we have found that different countries require a different mix of activities, especially on out of home advertising, referral programs, partnerships with vet clinics, premium pet food brands etc.”
Lead image: Lassie founders. Photo: uncredited.
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