Sebastien Gaudin: Embedded Health... The next growth Frontier for insurance

On this episode, Sabine VdL interviews Sebastien Gaudin, co-founder and CEO of CareVoice, an embedded HealthTech InsurTech platform that has grown fast to become a leader in their category across Asia through their platform the CareVoiceOS open platform which delivers a modern insurance infrastructure solution to connect and manage multiple health services providers to shape bespoke health engagement journey for micro-customer segments. Sebastien’s mission is to reinvent the healthcare and insurance spaces. Merging the two to deliver tailored experiences for users and payers. Sabine and Sebastien talk about the recent category paper they wrote ‘Embedded Health: The next growth frontier for insurance’,  discussing why embedded health is such an important topic for the health and insurance markets today? What are the winning business models we have seen emerge in recent years? What are the top capabilities needed to build a digital health ecosystem?   KEY TAKEAWAYS I value patient-centred care, looking at the patient from a board perspective with multiple stakeholders. From my experience working in China's digital ecosystem, customer-centred, service-oriented approaches are everywhere and you can create more value and relevance if you aggregate services for people. We opened new distribution channels, new ways for insurers to commercialise products. All our experiences have led us to the category of embedded health. It’s about being able to provide targeted customers a range of relevant digital healthcare services together with insurance in one single integrated customer experience.  Insurers are really making the move to embed health services with their insurance offering and then prevent or influence positively what may happen before a claim. Think about health players who can embed insurance and likely complimentary health insurance services to bring more value and protection to their customers but also all at once with a monetisation interest model for what they offer as a service. Lastly, noon-insurance, non-health players can also think about embedding health and insurance services as complimentary product offerings and revenues. We’ve been looking at how embedded health can really help to acquire customers. We see micro-insurance in the health space could be interesting because you start to see a number of players embedding micro-insurance and this gives new customers access to insurance that they couldn’t access before.    BEST MOMENTS ‘Working with insurers, we helped them to go beyond being a passive payer of claims and take a more proactive role, helping their customers navigate and find the right medical services at the right time.’  ‘With a digital customer journey you can support the individual along the way with easy access to treatments and healthcare professionals.’ ‘The opportunities that have opened up with this wealth of technologies that can impact people’s health. It’s true that digital natives are more suited to embrace this and most of the incumbents have been struggling because of their lack of digital capabilities.’ ‘The past two years have seen a solid acceleration. It’s still difficult to see which model will win, we may have new models emerging, it’s likely there will be multiple winners within different sub-categories. The most important thing is that the needs from both consumers and all stakeholders are strong and the value creation by transforming insurance and improving health is limitless.’   ABOUT THE GUEST Sebastien’s career has been dedicated to healthcare. He is the co-founder and CEO of CareVoice, a leading Asian Health InsurTech expanding globally and dedicated to making insurance more humane, with health at its core. With an academic background in pharmaceuticals and business, Sebastien worked in Corporate Development and Marketing, and served as a business leader across multiple therapeutic and geographic markets in the pharma industry. From a young age, he has been involved in creating and growing several new ventures. Sebastien is also the co-founder and non-executive Chairman of the Board of blüüm, a Chinese tech-driven insurtech MGA that was spun off from CareVoice after graduating from PingAn’s Accelerator program. Sebastien and CareVoice received multiple awards and recognitions, including the Top Insurtech Leader 2021 in the “Digital Business Ecosystem Builders” category by ACORD, a non-profit, industry-owned organisation that enables the success of the global insurance industry.    ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at [email protected]