Berlin The company Signal Iduna – the tenth largest insurer in Germany in terms of premium income – and the online bank Penta, which focuses on business customers, have entered into a cooperation. In the future, Penta’s customers will be able to use Signal Iduna’s insurance and advice via the platform. Conversely, Penta’s services are to be offered to the insurer’s medium-sized customers.
Signal Iduna is, among other things, a specialist for the security needs of medium-sized companies with a focus on trade, trade and services and will also participate financially in Penta. The partners have agreed not to disclose the amount of the stake.
Penta boss Markus Pertlwieser, the former digital head of the private customer business at Deutsche Bank, has come a step closer to his goal of “offering his customers access to the best products and the best services on a digital marketplace”. The cooperation with Signal Iduna is of enormous value for Penta. “The strong brand creates trust and will significantly increase our awareness among medium-sized companies.”
Penta’s target customers are small and medium-sized companies as well as solo self-employed and freelancers. Pertlwieser assumes that the cooperation will contribute “significantly to customer growth”. But he avoided a specific number. Penta currently has 45,000 customers.
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The Sales Director of the Signal Iduna Group, Torsten Uhlig, sees the cooperation as an opportunity to “raise bank assurance to a new level”. The term bancassurance describes the sale of insurance products by financial institutions. Penta customers should be provided digitally with suitable insurance offers – and vice versa, medium-sized customers should be made familiar with Penta’s banking services.
The approximately four million medium-sized companies, self-employed people and founders in Germany are considered to be digitally underserved when it comes to banking services. And it’s not just Penta that has filled this gap in the market. Competitors include, for example, Qonto, which recently managed a large financing round and is now considered a unicorn, i.e. a company with a market value of more than one billion euros. But companies like Moss, Holvi, Kontist, Finom and the Deutsche Bank subsidiary Fyrst are also among the competitors.
Gained experience with banks
For Signal Iduna it is the first cooperation with a digital banking platform. However, the insurer has previously gained experience with banks. Bankhaus Donner & Reuschel belongs to the insurance group. In addition, Signal Iduna is the largest shareholder of National-Bank Essen with around 32 percent.
In the past, many attempts to make “bank assurance” a success have failed. “Because the insurance employee was not picked up for the bank product and vice versa,” says Pertlwieser.
Therefore, according to Uhlig, the partners have agreed to first convince the sales department of the advantages of Penta. “If the insurers use the product themselves, this high level of identification can help with the sale of business accounts,” Uhlig is convinced.
By offering insurance products, Penta closes a major gap on its platform. Extensions are pending. In a short time, Penta customers should be able to access an overdraft facility provided by Solarisbank. The contract with a major bank, through which working capital loans are to be granted, is considered ready for signature.
Pertlwieser sees Penta well positioned for the next round of financing, which is due later this year. “It will certainly help us in discussions with investors that we now have another important partner in Signal Iduna to grow faster.”
More: Unicredit will also sell Allianz insurance policies in the future.