Five years since its official roll-out in 2019 Canopy Insurance Limited already has its sights set on reaching the decade milestone with hopes to realise significant growth as it continues to onboard new products and increase market share.

Designed to be an innovative, technology-driven health and life insurer, the company emerged out of a joint partnership between large conglomerates GraceKennedy (GK) and Musson Group of Companies, with the aim to secure the future of Jamaicans through life and specialised group health insurance coverage.

In their push to start up operations back in 2018, both GK and Musson, as large employers, both became dissatisfied with the value they received in exchange for their monthly group health and life insurance premiums, and, as such, decided to form Canopy in a bid to remove the hassle associated with health and life insurance. Through the new entity, the conglomerates sought to combine the sincerity of old-school customer care and the efficiency of modern technology to deliver a hassle-free insurance experience.

Based on survey findings around growing levels of frustration expressed by a number of stakeholders across the industry, including brokers, human resource personnel, members, and medical providers, the company’s directors later moved to capitalise on the pain points as they partnered on a solution to make “unnecessary paperwork, billing inaccuracies, lack of cost management, unreliable/sporadic reporting, rising premiums, late claims reimbursements, and poor customer service” issues of the past.

“Canopy is currently a group health and life insurer. Initially, our offerings only included the Employee Benefits suite of products which spanned Group Health, Life, Critical Illness and Personal Accident; however, in 2022 we diversified our revenue stream with the launch of the Canopy Family Plan,” CEO Oliver Tomlinson said.

The family plan, offered in partnership with the VM Group, is a life insurance plan with premiums as low as $380 per month for an $80,000 coverage, having other affordable options that can cover up to six family members for as much as $2 million.

Tomlinson, who emerged as the successor to Sean Scott who had responsibility for Canopy’s leadership up to 2022, possesses more than two decades of management experience in the financial industry. Additionally, he is a director and past president of the Insurance Association of Jamaica (IAJ).

As one of the newest insurance providers, the company, after carving out approximately seven per cent of market share during its first year of operation despite the onslaught of the novel coronavirus pandemic which affected its team’s ability to meet and build relationships with brokers and clients, has over the years managed to maintain steady revenue growth even as it struggled to realise a profit.

Now commanding about 10 per cent of local market share, the company is, however, looking to chunk out more growth in the Jamaican market before it embarks on those other plans which could see it tap into more countries across the region.

Up to end of the last financial year ended December 31, 2023, insurance revenues for the company totalled $3.2 billion, up from $2.7 billion in the year prior. The company, however, for the first time in 2023, also reached profitability after it secured $39.2 million in net profit with total assets of $724 million.

“As a growing company, we continue to be proud of a number of our achievements, and two of those stand-out items are our ability to achieve profitability in 2023 and also to be able to provide health and life insurance coverage to over 50,000 Jamaicans. As we continue to improve efficiencies and add new products, the plan is to further accelerate growth as we look to further expand our client base leading up to our first decade,” Tomlinson said.

Banking on the use of advanced technology to drive greater efficiency across the business, clients, brokers, and employers continue to be assured of quick turnaround times in processing policies, as significant investments in Canopy’s user-friendly platforms are designed to offer more visibility and control as it reduces the time spent on tedious administrative tasks.

“In launching our revolutionary online portal for members, brokers, HR professionals, and medical service providers we have been using these user-friendly online platforms to give our stakeholders easy access to benefits and claims information and the ability to manage their policies,” Tomlinson further stated.

“With our online tools, it’s easy to keep your member eligibility lists up to date, check on claims status, and even file paper claims and pre-authorisations online. It’s an experience that’s focused on reducing the burden of insurance plan administration,” he noted.

Active in the philanthropic space, the company, through a number of projects, has also been busy working to fulfil its corporate social responsibility as it lends support to a wide range of high-impact social projects across the island.

“Through Canopy Cares, our corporate social responsibility programme, we are also dedicated to giving back and supporting initiatives that make a difference, and we will continue to do so as we look to further grow the company in the next five years” the CEO said.