Scaling a life insurance pioneer into a full insurtech platform

  • Category: Startup
  • Industry: Financial Services
  • Service: Platform modernization
  • Client: InsurTech platform

A digital life insurance provider partnered with Symphony to evolve from a direct-to-consumer business into a full platform-as-a-service provider for brokers, agents, and fintech partners. The engagement began as small-scale team augmentation and grew into a multi-year strategic partnership, enabling the client to launch new automation capabilities, streamline agent operations, and expand its Insurance-as-a-Service (IaaS) model.

Problem

The client's legacy, hardcoded notification system created major inefficiencies, limiting scalability and flexibility during its transition from B2C to B2B. As enterprise demand grew, the system could not support dynamic policy approvals, referral programs, or third-party integrations, slowing partner onboarding and operational agility.

Solution

Symphony rebuilt the client's operational infrastructure from the ground up, focusing on scalability, automation, and ease of integration. The engagement evolved from a short-term delivery sprint into an embedded engineering partnership operating as the client's core product squad.

  • Operations Portal: A self-service system for configuring notifications, policy documents, buyers' guides, and amendments
  • Agent Ops Portal: Streamlined agent workflows and improved visibility across pre- and post-sales processes
  • Referral Program & A/B Testing: Introduced new referral mechanics and experimentation tools that optimized funnel performance and boosted conversions
  • SDK for third-party use: Enabled external partners to access the insurance infrastructure through a secure SDK, extending the client's IaaS capabilities

Technology: Symphony delivered new backend and frontend systems designed for growth and rapid automation. The new architecture integrated with legacy systems while supporting the development of partner APIs and modular feature releases.

Under the hood

The rebuild combined modern cloud-based architecture and data-driven workflows:

  • Core track: Modular notification service and policy approval logic refactored for scale
  • Integration track: API-ready SDK allowing fintechs and brokers to plug into the insurance infrastructure
  • Experimentation track: Built-in A/B testing and conversion analytics for continuous optimization

Business impact

  • 800% year-over-year sales growth
  • 85% of applicants new to life insurance
  • 70% of applicants applied via mobile
  • Sales cycles reduced from 45 days to under 10 minutes
  • Successful transition from B2C to B2B platform model
  • Enabled Insurance-as-a-Service expansion with partner SDK
  • 800% - Year-over-year sales growth
  • 85% - Of applicants new to life insurance
  • 70% - Applied via mobile
  • 45 days → 10 min - Sales cycle reduction

https://symphony.is/our-impact/case-studies/insurtech-platform