Dear product managers, start thinking of ‘embedded everything’
This is a ‘guess’ post. Still searching for meaningful data. Point me in the right direction when you find one.
A quick steal from a16z; “Embedding fintech (rather than just reselling) improves margins and makes the product stickier”. *(fintech = lending, payment, insurtech)
It is quite natural when we hear ‘embedded’, fintech comes to mind. However, very few talk about the platform, products etc, where the fintech will be embedded. It’s going to be a two-way thing — ‘embedded’ and ‘embed’!
Are you the embedded or the embed?
Infrastructure companies have made it possible for software companies to add an extra layer of revenue to their core product or service offerings.
This is likely going to be a forever trend. That’s apart from the huge fundings and many unicorns (I see you Flutterwave, Opay and Andela and co) we will be seeing in the coming years.
Umrelated porn: seeds are no more seeds.
Some guiding numbers:
- Embedded Insurance: According to a report by InsTech London, the embedded insurance market is forecast to grow to $722bn in GWP by 2030 — more than six times its current size.
- This rise of non-bank technology companies has led to the emergence of embedded finance as an estimated $7 trillion opportunity globally by 2030.
As the story will go…dear product managers and innovators
This will be played in two ways: you’re either embedding into another platform, company or you’re embedded into. This should be how you think about your product — holistically.
Ask yourself, what money are you leaving on the table? For instance, can Doctoora sell health insurance? Why not? Who believed a few years ago that your neighbourhood small shop owner would become your street bank? But, we have street banks right now.
A published report by Statista stated; “As of May 2021, POS payments in Nigeria were worth 503 billion Nigerian Naira, registering an increase compared to the previous years. Between 2015 and 2021, the number of POS payments rose significantly.”
You should be aware of this so it can be incorporated into your product fast enough.
Slack Huddle walks in…
Have you used the Slack Huddle yet? No? You should. A typical embedded case for me is ‘huddle on slack’.Things that are not fintech can be embedded too. Though Slack owns Huddle but just twist your brain a little of how many products out there can leverage a platform like this for mutual benefits.
Slack Huddle provides massive value, reaching more people and helping Slack to advance more free users to paid. Better CAC and LTV for Slack.
As a result of its ease of use, many users are now gingered to move from a free to a paid plan so they don’t miss out on huddle and whatever ‘embedded’ comes next. I love to experiment!
*Slack Huddle is a feature that lets users on paid plans have audio discussions with people in their workspace and other invited users. (Business Insider)
Back to the embedded anything and everything…
For insurance in Africa, I think lots of startups are solving real problems and very soon, anyone anywhere can buy whatever insurance product they need from their convenient stores — offline or online.
There are more examples and opportunities in this embedded lifestyle we have come into.
And this will not just be an online thing, it is more likely to spread offline. A classical case would be a car dealer selling insurance using the Curacel Grow infrastructure (chat them up to learn more) or your Favour food canteen allowing ‘buy now pay later’ through the likes of Credpal.
Get embedded into or embed into. That’s the future.
Why? For me, there are three reasons you should have it in your product. Think CAC, LTV and more…
- Faster adoption
- Wider distribution
- Quick feedback
- Drives revenue growth
- Marketing advantage
And another business that will spurn out of this will be startups building the infrastructures to allow for an easy product or service embedding.
Curacel is building a solid infrastructure for insurance with Curacel Grow, making it easy for insurance companies to embed their products on a platform and for the platforms to (get embedded into) drive more sales selling insurance to their customers.
Again, are you the embed or the embedded?
NOTE: This is a ‘guess’ post.
Image: Medici Global
