Last month, our CEO, Charlotte Koep, joined host Hattie Armstrong, on a recent episode of the We are Insurtech Women podcast, to dive into the main challenge that the business is addressing, Root’s 2025 plans as well as why she is so passionate about entrepreneurship and insurtech. Here we share some key insights from this discussion. 

A lack of insurance

Speaking on the current state of play, Charlotte explained: "Insurance has a supply problem. There’s a lack of insurance in the world, people are chronically underinsured. This is the narrative. Essentially because everyone is getting stuck launching new products to market. Our mission is to provide the technical infrastructure and layer of human expertise to be able to help digitally bridge that gap.”

Meanwhile, Root has been going from strength to strength. In late 2022, Root officially launched in the UK, after firmly establishing itself in the South African market. 

“We were quite confident that we had found a level of product market fit. South Africa is a small market, it’s a great market for us but we have a cutting edge technology that is really going to benefit insurance on a global scale, so we really wanted to expand,” said Charlotte.

“It’s one of the largest insurance markets and really sophisticated. Same language, regulatory similarities in insurance, a good cultural fit. The technology fit for us was good because that’s the sort of innovation that we want to be at the forefront of. There are a lot of cultural similarities between the English and South Africans.”

Now as 2025 unfolds, many exciting opportunities are on the horizon. 

“I think 2025 is going to be a really meaningful year for us. There are a number of reasons – we’re already shifting our sales centre to the UK. We have some exciting things on the product side. Our main objective with our platform is to help businesses grow - policy administration is a key piece for this but it’s not the full picture. 

“We have been doing a lot of thinking about what the other tools are that we could give our clients to actually help them grow their businesses. Our thinking is very much – how do we put the policyholder, who is ultimately the consumer, at the centre of an insurance business.” 

It was this entrepreneurial type of thinking that first attracted Charlotte to the insurtech sector, but it wasn't until she worked at a venture capital (VC) firm that she had the opportunity to gain a front row seat into the challenges startups face, particularly in insurtech. 

Entrepreneurial spirit 

Root was a natural move out of VC when she crossed paths with Malan Joubert who convinced her to come on board his venture builder, FireID, to get closer to the startup coal face within Root and other startups. 

She said: “I always had the concept that ‘you have to have done something yourself before you can help others do it’. As a VC, fundamentally your job is to help entrepreneurs grow their businesses. I really seized the opportunity for first hand experience and to get my hands dirty, joining the venture builder and transitioning into a COO role at Root a year later.

“There’s an air of excitement around startups and small businesses, actually making meaningful change in the world. During legal practice, I was lucky enough to work in private equity and in VC – that really gave me the exposure to entrepreneurship, tech, insights into the funding of small businesses, which opened up a whole new world.”

To listen to the full podcast, please click here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3JihXEEU5yDy1ZoLKiFXEO