An actor dressed as the Bomberman video-game series character White Bomberman, center, in front of the Konami Digital Entertainment Co. booth at the Tokyo Game Show 2022 in Chiba, Japan, on Thursday, Sept. 15, 2022.
Kiyoshi Ota/Bloomberg
Six months ago, insurtech startup Spokk had approval in just a few U.S. states for its pet insurance offerings. The company, founded in the Ukraine, is now on its way to regulatory approvals in all U.S. states by the end of summer, and has active business in about half the U.S. states, according to Alexandra Gladyshevskaya, CEO.
Alexandra Gladyshevskaya, CEO, Spokk
Spokk also has plans for more insurance products covering gaming, cryptocurrency wallets and NFTs, said Gladyshevskaya. In gaming, Spokk plans to cover digital items that exist only in the virtual gaming world, such as skins, which are graphics that can enhance a player's character.
"If your game account was breached or hacked, and your skins were stolen, we will reimburse you with the price of the stolen skins," she said.
Spokk is designing its products to appeal to Gen Z and millennial consumers. Its pet insurance policyholders can create avatars of their pets to interact in a virtual world. The company is looking at other features to offer in the metaverse, such as virtual events where one can send an avatar to attend, Gladyshevskaya added.
"It always was our idea to connect real life and virtual life. The metaverse and gaming are very close," she said.
This could also lead to coverage products for avatars and virtual objects in the metaverse, according to Gladyshevskaya.
With its plans and product offerings, Spokk has grown considerably, reaching a $4 million valuation, based on a stock price of $11.52 per share on April 3, up from $7.17 per share in September when the company was featured in a "Meet the insurtech" story. Spokk is considering expanding into the Japanese and South Korean markets as well, Gladyshevskaya said.
Raju Seetharaman, CTO of the U.S. unit of the U.K.-based financial services and life insurance firm, is bringing experience gained with the parent company to expand based on digital transformation of its technology.
Insurance broker Marsh will start offering contracts to protect companies against fraud in the market for carbon credits, after the instruments became the subject of recurring allegations of greenwashing.
