Meet Evy, a French startup that is working on extended warranties and product protection insurance. The company raised a $6.5 million seed round (€6.5 million) from Sequoia, La Famiglia VC, Global Founders Capital and several business angels.
Evy wants to bring an AppleCare experience to other brands and retailers. Essentially, the startup wants to create a seamless experience when it comes to adding product protection at checkout and some good coverage out of the box.
The startup acts as an insurance broker and partners with Wakam to cover the risk — but it could also partner with other insurance companies in the future. On the other side, it partners with retailers so that they embed Evy’s insurance products on their sites or try to sell an extended warranty in stores.
For instance, Evy has signed a partnership with ManoMano, a home improvement and gardening e-commerce platform that I’ve covered over the years. When a customer is buying a product on ManoMano, they can add multiyear coverage against breakage, breakdown and/or theft.
What makes Evy stand out from legacy players is that it can create custom-made insurance products in very little time. For instance, ManoMano has 25 different product categories across four countries. Evy has created 25 tailor-made insurance programs in just a few months.
Similarly, retailers can develop deep integrations with Evy as the insurtech startup focuses on API-based integrations.
If there is something wrong with the product, Evy first tries to find a solution to fix the product. It plans to put together a repair network. If it doesn’t work, Evy makes a payment to the customer.
And the distribution method should work quite well as Evy shares some revenue with its retail partners. Some big retailers, such as Darty or Best Buy, already generate important revenue from insurance products. Evy wants to offer a solution for the long tail of e-commerce and brick-and-mortar stores.
Evy isn’t just an insurance play. There’s a bigger vision around product lifecycles. “Eventually we want to offer all customer services that are associated with products. They are useful for both the merchant and the end user,” co-founder and CEO Simon Kemoun told me.
“They are all switching to the circular economy. We know when a product is under warranty and we know when there has been no incident. We can issue a trade-in offer so that you can get the most recent product,” he added.
There are some companies in the U.S. focusing on the same industry, such as Clyde and Extend. In France, Evy competes with Neat.