UK digital insurance provider Eleos Life has launched in the US, offering term life and disability insurance through partnerships with mutual insurer Assurity and reinsurer SCOR. Licensed across 41 states and the District of Columbia, the company aims to make individual insurance more accessible, given inadequate coverage among consumers. With fewer than 30% of US citizens holding individual term life insurance and about 18% possessing individual disability insurance, the opportunity for improved coverage is evident.

Eleos Life will distribute its products via banks, credit unions, and fintech platforms. The insurance products will be integrated into the partners’ digital platforms using application programming interfaces (APIs), thus enabling insurance offers to be embedded within existing customer journeys. The company claims the integration process can be completed in less than a week, with regulatory compliance managed centrally, and customers can apply for and manage policies fully online. The target markets for Eleos Life comprise a significant portion of the population, with an estimated 161 million employed individuals representing the disability insurance market, and around 65 million households with a primary income earner constituting the individual term life insurance market.

In addition to insurance coverage, Eleos Life provides access to remote primary care and mental health counselling services for its policyholders. The company’s ultimate goal is to close the gaps in protection by embedding insurance into everyday consumer platforms, addressing the low levels of individual insurance ownership.

In terms of global trends, Eleos Life forms part of an increasing number of startups seeking to scale through partnerships and tech-driven distribution models in markets with significant underinsurance. This broad trend is becoming more popular as UK insurtech firms, including Zego, ManyPets and YuLife, continue to expand internationally, leveraging technology for a streamlined, digital distribution of insurance products.