Blink teams up with Manulife to provide innovative travel disruption solutions
Blink, one of the fastest-growing Travel Insurance InsurTechs in the world, has announced that it has entered into an agreement with Manulife, one of Canada’s largest travel insurers, to support the roll-out of tailor-made insurance solutions to its customers.
Blink, acquired by CPP Group Plc in 2017 and based in Cork, Ireland is quickly becoming one of the most innovative and successful providers of flight disruption solutions to insurers across the globe. It offers customers a proactive, real-time service that meets the speed and convenience that modern customers demand. Since its inception in 2016, Blink has formed a number of distribution partnerships in large markets across North America, Asia and Europe.
Manulife offers travel insurance through many distribution channels across Canada and is a leading international Financial Services group that helps people make their decisions easier and lives better. It operates primarily as John Hancock in the United States and Manulife elsewhere.
Announcing the partnership, Paul Prendergast, CEO of Blink said:
“We have been working with Manulife to develop a very exciting suite of products that will transform the customer travel insurance experience. The Manulife ethos is very much in keeping with our own focus in finding and developing innovative digital solutions with the primary goal of making customers’ travel insurance experience as efficient as possible.”
This paperless service helps ease the stress of a flight delay or cancellation in real-time and will be a convenient offer for leisure and business travelers alike. Benefits include complimentary airport lounge access, hotel rebooking options and instant payment when the insured’s flight is delayed more than three hours, all done seamlessly through a smartphone. The new product suite will initially be piloted to optimise the delivery solution before being rolled out across additional distribution channels.
Rob Iafrate, AVP Manulife Travel Insurance commented that, “The technology that Blink has developed is truly innovative and unlike anything we have seen on the market to-date. Manulife is transforming into the most digital, customer-centric company in our industry, and this partnership with Blink aligns perfectly. We are redefining insurance and how providers interact with customers to ensure efficiency and best-in-class service. We are looking forward to creating this new, convenient experience for our customers to further support them during those stressful times of flight disruption.”
Blink operates and monitors global flight disruptions in real-time. The common inconvenience of completing insurance claim forms or submitting receipts is no longer required because the customer does not need to submit proof that the disruption took place.
Blink has experienced significant success over the last 24 months, entering into partnerships with insurers and travel organisations throughout Europe, Asia and North America. In particular, Blink’s success in North America is due to Red Consulting, one of Canada’s leading travel insurance and medical assistance consulting companies. “The Blink tech is creating the new normal for delivering real-time solutions for flight disruptions. It’s a real pleasure working alongside the Blink team and Manulife, while supporting travel insurance industry change,” said Gary Andrews, President of Red Consulting.
About Blink:
Paul Prendergast (CEO) and Peter Bermingham (CTO) founded Blink in 2016, to build data-driven travel disruption insurance solutions and was one of the first InsurTech start-ups to focus on travel insurance. It was also the first InsurTech in the FCA (UK) Sandbox programme, and was one of the early partnerships of Munich Re Digital Partners, the Digital Innovation arm of global Reinsurer Munich Re. Based in Cork, Ireland the company was acquired by CPP Group (AIM CPP) in March 2017, one of the early InsurTech acquisitions globally. Since then Blink has continued on its journey of building innovative solutions for our travel insurance partners globally and has partnered with global travel insurance companies in North America, Europe and Asia.
For further information visit https://blinkblink.io
About CPP Group:
CPP Group is a partner focused, global product and services company, specialising in the financial services and insurance markets. We use our local knowledge from 12 country markets within Asia, Europe and Central America to provide our business partners with technology-led product, marketing and distribution expertise that deliver commercial benefits and bring meaningful solutions to over 9 million end customers worldwide. CPP’s diverse range of insurance and assistance products can be designed to suit the bespoke needs of our business partners through providing their customers with peace of mind by reducing the stresses of everyday life, ranging from protection of mobile phones, payment cards and household belongings to keeping travel plans moving and the monitoring of compromised personal data.
For more information on CPP visit https://international.cppgroup.com