Reviews Report
- Waffle insurance app launched May 19 with five products nationwide.
- Customers can sign up for Waffle at TryWaffle.com.
- Home and auto insurance will be available through Waffle in summer 2021.
Gone are the days of customers buying multiple insurance policies across various companies. Yes, the largest insurance companies on the market offer different types of insurance and even dole out discounts when customers buy more than one policy. But what do you do if one policy doesn’t meet your needs, or you want to avoid certain exclusions?
That’s where Waffle steps in.
Launching May 19 with five insurance products across 50 states, Waffle is a new, third-party insurance app designed to integrate personal insurance policies from multiple companies and package it in one, easy-to-access portal. Founded by Quentin Coolen, Sam Barnsley, and Michael Li, Waffle offers renters, life, pet, travel, and cyber insurance. While Waffle doesn’t provide its own insurance products, it partners with other insurance companies to offer policies that can be quoted, bought, and managed in one app.
“Who are we to compete with Geico and Progressive?” says Coolen, Waffle co-founder and CEO. “So instead of fighting them like many startups tend to do, we decided to partner with the best companies that we know and choose their products.”
For the initial five-product lineup, Waffle partnered with ASPCA for pet insurance, Markel and Boost for renters insurance, Arch for travel insurance, Blink by Chubb for cyber insurance, and Haven Life for term life insurance. However, additional products like home and auto insurance will be available later this year.
Coolen expects that because of the pandemic and COVID-related cancellations, travel insurance will be a popular insurance product offered through Waffle.
One of the new Waffle insurance products Coolen also believes will be popular among customers is cyber insurance. Through Waffle, customers can buy cyber insurance from Blink by Chubb. While this policy won’t resolve any cyber-related issues itself, customers can file claims for missing work or school and the costs of therapy or counseling stemming from cyberbullying or online harassment, in addition to the costs of identity theft or ransomware attacks.
Despite Waffle being a third-party app, Coolen doesn’t expect any delays when policyholders file claims directly through the app.
“It’s going to be exactly the same amount of time that you would have if you were to go with those carriers individually,” explains Coolen. “It depends on the product, but we can help the claim process, we can help you collect the documents, and you can upload documents on the app.”
Ultimately, the creators of Waffle hope to bring complete insurance protection to customers nationwide with few exclusions and high-quality insurance products. Waffle wants to balk in the face of insurance giants without opposing them directly.
As the saying goes, if you can’t beat them, join them.
“If you see the reputation of the industry, it’s still not the favorite industry of many people … it’s like all those small businesses who got hit by COVID and tried to file their business interruption claims and heard the words, ‘Sorry guys, there is an exclusion for pandemics or for viruses,’” Coolen says. “Our goal is really to bring back the industry to its original purpose, which is to protect people whenever they need it. What’s the point of insurance if it doesn’t protect you when you need it?”
Customers can sign up for Waffle insurance on the Apple App Store, Google Play, or online at www.TryWaffle.com.
About the Authors
Courtney Mihocik is an editor for Reviews.com. She graduated from Ohio University with a degree in journalism and a specialization in Russian studies. Her previous editing and writing work can be seen on The Simple Dollar, Interest.com, Ballantyne Magazine, and more. In her spare time, she likes to read sci-fi novels and do the New York Times crossword.