grape: The Venture Leader Fintech fostering team health with its fully digital insurance service

21.11.2022 09:00, Morgane Ghilardi

The Swiss National Startup Team welcomes new members after an expert jury selected ten startups for the Venture Leaders Fintech 2022 program. In anticipation of the London roadshow at the end of November, we would like to introduce our community to each of the Venture Leaders. Meet Gregory Inauen, Co-Founder of grape.

Name: Gregory Inauen 
Location: Zurich, Switzerland 
Nationality: Swiss 
Graduated from: ETH Zurich, Computer Science, B.Sc. 
Job title: Co-Founder 
Number of employees: 12 
Money raised: CHF 1.7 million 
First touchpoint with Venturelab: 2021, Venture Kick 

What does your startup do and why?
grape is a fully digital employee insurance company improving team health. 

How and where did you come up with the idea for your startup?
My co-founder Fabian and I have a background in digital health and prevention. After experiencing how work can impact one's health, we embarked on a journey to change this. We realized that insurance companies are the key players to lead this change, but either they're not doing anything or they don’t have an impact. That's why we started grape.

What do you expect from the Venture Leaders roadshow, and how do you think it will help you achieve your vision?
The UK is a very interesting market with a similar regulatory framework as Switzerland when it comes to employee insurance and a logical next entry point in Europe for grape. Finding partners and customers in the UK would help grape to prove our product-market fit beyond Switzerland. In this sense, some of the tangible results that we would like to achieve during the Venture Leaders program are to expand our network abroad to new partners and customers. After a successful pre-seed round, a new round of investment is on the horizon to help grape continue to transform the employee insurance experience and grow the team beyond Switzerland.
 

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"We're the first insurer actively investing in mental health initiatives and supporting teams in rolling out prevention campaigns in their company."

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Whom does your solution help, and how? 
grape's product helps companies, specifically HR teams, but also their employees. We bundle our employee insurance with our B2B software. Its automation and integrations reduce administrative work, therefore saving HR teams time for claiming, reporting, and payroll adjustments. Additionally, we're the first insurer actively investing in mental health initiatives and supporting teams in rolling out prevention campaigns in their company.

What are you most excited about at work right now?
Building the next-gen employee insurance company that will transform every step of the group insurance value chain with our technologies.

How did you build your team?
In September 2021, Fabian Mächler and I started grape. The two of us worked on product, sales, and the regulatory front until January 2022. After that Pascal, Noel, Momo joined us to expand our engineering and sales output. One year later, we're a team of 12 people.

Which market are you addressing and what is the potential of your startup?
We are focusing on the Swiss market with an annual premium volume in the sick leave insurance line (KTG) of CHF 4.8 billion and accident insurance (UVG/Z) of CHF 3.5 billion. In Europe, that segment makes up an estimated market of CHF 100-200 billion. grape currently operates in Switzerland, but expectations for successful internationalization are very high. The UK and the Netherlands are also very interesting markets.

What are your key achievements to date?
Grape was started in September 2021. In November 2021, grape was incorporated. In March 2022, grape closed its partnership with ÖKK and Swiss Re as our risk carriers (or reinsurers). A month later, we closed the first pre-seed round with a total of USD 1.7 million. In May, grape obtained its insurance license as a managing general agent (MGA) and received approval from the financial regulator (FINMA). In June, grape launched its software platform and soon after closed its partnership with Aon, the largest insurance broker globally. Since its launch, grape has reached a six-figure annual recurring premium volume.

What is one thing not many people know about you?
I was born and grew up in Appenzell, Switzerland's smallest canton.

What is your favorite podcast and why?
The Swisspreneur. The team producing the podcast does a phenomenal job gathering insights from great and often underrepresented Swiss entrepreneurs.
 

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"There are so many opportunities in our field and I can't wait to see them become a reality."

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What is your favorite book and why?
It's changing every other month; at the moment, I’d say What You Do Is Who You Are by Ben Horowitz. It's a great book on how to create and sustain the culture that drives big change.

How did you come up with the name of your startup?
We gave ourselves a time limit of 30 minutes to find a name. With our approach and offering, we're making insurance sweet. That's why we chose the name 'grape.'

Who inspires you and why?
My co-founder Fabian. Sounds cheesy but it's true. His drive to continuously push for better results and his ability to be humble and grateful at all times inspire me every day.

Which startup do you wish you had founded and why?
I wish we had founded grape sooner. There are so many opportunities in our field and I can't wait to see them become a reality.

What is the most challenging aspect of being a founder?
Managing your private life with friends, loved ones, time for yourself, and the endless stream of work you would like to get done.

What is the most rewarding aspect of being a founder?
Celebrating big milestones with our team, such as winning a customer or releasing new products and features.

What is something you wish you had known about being a founder?
You can and should take breaks to recharge your batteries.

What is the most important lesson you have learned as a founder?
You don't have to answer every question perfectly. 

What is your greatest professional failure, and what did you learn from it?
Losing an important customer because of a lack of resources and mental space. I learned to focus and delegate. I don't have to do everything myself.

How do you foster creative thinking among your team members?
Don't talk ever about a problem without presenting a solution.

The Venture Leaders Fintech roadshow in London is organized by Venturelab in partnership with Swissnex and supported by EPFL, ETH Zürich, and Walder Wyss.