Sug’urta Bozor — the first insurance marketplace in Uzbekistan

How it all started

We started our business as an insurance marketplace in Uzbekistan. Today, we have become an InsurTech startup in Central Asia, providing infrastructure solutions for insurance companies. Additionally, I am a co-founder and the Business Development Manager.

The startup was initially started years ago without me by two co-founders, two friends. The project was called Net Cost. Back then, there was no legislation for online insurance, and they did not have a team, so things did not work out.

We, the founders, all graduated from the same university, the same faculty, and in the same year. They reached out to me, and that is how we met. From that day, the Sug’urta Bozor project began. We rebranded it in 2022 and started from scratch.

Target audience

Initially, we helped car owners. To give an example, like in memes: on an airplane, they ask:
— Tea or coffee?
— Coffee.
— Wrong, tea.

Imagine you are going to the mountains with friends, but at the last minute, you realize you forgot to buy an insurance policy. Do not worry, through our platform, you can get one in just a few minutes. However, we noticed that half the people wanted to create an insurance marketplace. So, we deep-dived into the problem of insurance companies.

Currently, we position ourselves as a superpower for insurance companies. If you have an insurance company and are interested in selling car insurance policies, we offer a wide range of services: from scoring and online sales to remote vehicle inspections, defect detection, and tools for online contract signing. Just like in Kazakhstan — Trustme, we have a similar microservice in our product.

We have five partners, five insurance companies, and 400 000 users. Over our years of operation, our company’s turnover has exceeded $400 000. We have sold more than 60 000 policies and inspected over 1000 cars.

Accelerator programs

We have participated in almost all the accelerator programs available in our region and in Uzbekistan. These include Skart Ventures, Aloha Ventures, Plug and Play, Innotech, Startup Growth Program, and a program from the IT Park.

Initially, we invested our own money — around $10 000. At that time, all our employees left, and it was just the founders who stayed and worked full-time. Working full-time was our first goal. The second goal was to create an MVP. The third goal was, after developing the MVP, to raise funds. Nine months after we began working, we raised our first $100 000 from the local venture fund UZVC. Some insurance companies were also interested in investing in our startup. Some wanted to give $100 000, some $200 000, and so on. But we turned them all down for now.

Achievements

Our first achievement — we survived the first year. As you know, 99% of startups fail within the first year. We managed to keep our project going.

The second — our team grew. We started with three people, and now we have more than 10 people in the team.

Third — we grow about 350-400% every year. In the first year, we grew by 400%. This year and last year, we also grew by 400%.

Fourth — we have good and close relationships with insurance companies, meaning with our clients. They trust us, share their problems with us. Because, when you're an insurance company, your ego is higher than Everest.

We have participated in many pitch competitions. We recently won in Baku at the TikTok Academy, then won in Uzbekistan and became finalists. Thus, without spending money on marketing, we have already gained recognition in the markets of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan.

Plans

We are interested in Kazakhstan. The market is bottomless, big, 10 times bigger than in Uzbekistan.

I realized that once a startup, always a startup. That is, if you have already started a startup once, you can no longer work in corporations, work for someone. I am glad that I position myself as a startup. I think and act like a startup and all my friends are startups. A startupper is not a beggar person as sometimes joked about. It's a person with a different mindset who is looking for the path of 10X efficiency, 10X cheapness, 10X speed and so on.