Flinket and Upvest Bring Digital Unit-Linked Insurance to Europe

The Spanish InsurTech company Flinket and the Berlin-based FinTech company Upvest are entering into a partnership. Together, the companies aim to enable insurers to bring fully digital unit-linked insurance products to the European market more quickly. To this end, the partnership combines Flinket’s infrastructure for unit-linked products with Upvest’s investment API.

The first joint product to launch in Spain is “myETF.” This digital unit-linked insurance product was developed by Flinket, with MGC Mutua serving as the insurer. Additional products featuring other insurers and asset classes across Europe are set to follow.

Investment Infrastructure Meets Insurance Platform

Flinket has developed a technological and operational platform that enables insurers to digitally offer unit-linked products. The infrastructure covers the entire lifecycle, including onboarding, suitability assessments, policy management, and documentation and reporting processes related to PRIIPs and IDD.

The integration of Upvest’s Investment API now adds the investment infrastructure. Behind the scenes, Upvest handles order execution, settlement, and custody, among other tasks. This is intended to enable insurers to develop investment products based on various asset classes without having to build the corresponding technical infrastructure themselves.

ETFs Within Insurance

At launch, customers can choose between two approaches within their policy. On the one hand, they can select individual ETFs and combine them into a personalized strategy. On the other hand, portfolios curated by MGC Mutua are available.

Both options support savings plans as well as recurring and pro-rata investments.

A unique feature stems from the Spanish tax treatment of the unit-linked structure. Within the policy, investors can switch between ETFs without each individual switch immediately triggering a taxable event. According to Flinket, taxation does not occur until the investment is paid out.

It is precisely this combination of digital processing, ETF investments, and tax structure that is intended to make unit-linked insurance policies more attractive to a broader group of retail investors.

Faster Products

For Flinket, one of the market’s biggest hurdles to date has been the complexity of such products. Insurance-based investment offerings must not only be technically implemented but also embedded within extensive regulatory processes. The shared infrastructure is designed to reduce this burden. According to Flinket, this will enable banks, fintechs, and insurers to bring such solutions to market within months rather than years.

The products are also attractive to the providers themselves: insurance-based savings and investment solutions can foster long-term customer relationships and generate recurring revenue.

Upvest provides the infrastructure behind the scenes

For Upvest, the partnership represents another use case for its investment API. While Flinket handles the insurance logic and regulatory framework, Upvest manages key investment processes behind the scenes.

Flinket was founded in 2021 and pursues several business models. In addition to its own products for end customers, the company offers white-label solutions for banks and other institutions, as well as its technology via APIs for insurers with their own development teams.

The Spanish InsurTech is backed by, among others, the founders of Antai Venture Builder, EBISU Digital VC, and MGC Mutua. A key factor going forward will likely be how quickly Flinket and Upvest can attract additional insurers and establish the model in other European markets beyond Spain.