Embedded Insurance for Horses: How Equine MediRecord Tackles Massive Underinsurance with Kayna & WTW

The vast majority of horses in Europe and globally have no insurance coverage whatsoever

Horse insurance is traditionally difficult to obtain, expensive, and involves significant paperwork barriers

For many horse owners, especially trainers managing 30 to 400 horses, the administrative burden makes insurance impractical

This creates massive financial risk, particularly in horse racing, where individual horses can be worth hundreds of thousands

Self insurance works for some large operations, but leaves most individual owners and smaller trainers vulnerable

The problem extends beyond horses: 43% of UK small business insurance claims involve underinsurance (Chartered Institute of Loss Adjusters, 2024)

Equine MediRecord started as a solution to digitize medical records for horses, which were previously paper only due to legal requirements

The company comes from five generations of Irish horse breeders who experienced the paperwork burden firsthand

They had to work with regulators across multiple countries to change legislation allowing digital records

The platform tracks medications, vaccinations, treatments, and sends automated vaccination reminders

Primary customers are horse trainers in racing, which faces the strictest health regulations for integrity and welfare reasons

Customers range from owners with 1 to 2 horses to large training operations with 200 to 400 horses

The medical data is considered secret sauce by trainers, critical proprietary information about their training methods

Kayna provides the digital integration layer between vertical SaaS platforms and insurance providers

Instead of 6 to 9 month integration projects, Kayna enables embedded insurance launches in approximately one week

The platform is insurance line agnostic, whether it's construction company revenue or horse age, it's just data to us

Kayna works across diverse industries: retail gas stations in the US, construction, field services, and now equine

The technology is consent driven, allowing platform owners to control their data while enabling seamless insurance quotes

Kayna's model: an inch deep and a mile wide, partnering with vertical SaaS platforms that serve specific communities with unique distribution and valuable data

WTW's GB Affinity practice specializes in distributing insurance through organizations whose core activity isn't insurance

Affinity insurance is a well established distribution method now being modernized through embedded technology

WTW works with membership groups, vertical SaaS, marketplaces, retailers, and manufacturers

The traditional insurance buying process is time consuming and requires consumers to input extensive data manually

Embedded insurance simplifies this by pre populating data from the platform, reducing friction dramatically

WTW brings the insurance expertise and capacity; Kayna provides the nimble capability to connect the dots

The partnership between WTW and Kayna existed before Equine MediRecord approached them, enabling faster deployment

Horse owners log into Equine MediRecord and see a new Insurance tab alongside their existing tabs (Home, Horse, Treatments)

They select which horses they want to insure directly within the platform they already use daily

Data from Equine MediRecord flows through Kayna's integration layer to WTW's insurance offering

The solution pre populates information the platform already has, minimizing manual data entry

Currently focused on mortality insurance as the foundational product

Launched initially in the UK market, with plans to expand

The seamless integration means horse owners can get insured without leaving their workflow or duplicating data entry

Horse values fluctuate dramatically based on race performance, a winning horse immediately becomes underinsured

Equine MediRecord could trigger insurance adjustment prompts when a horse wins a race, addressing underinsurance in real time

Expansion beyond mortality insurance to other horse insurance types is planned

Micro insurance for short term coverage during specific events like horse transportation or travel

Integration with race data could connect medical records with performance data to create more sophisticated risk profiles

Finlay emphasizes starting with one product done well, then building upon that foundation

The key is allowing customers to adopt gradually rather than overwhelming them with options

In the UK, micro SMEs (up to 10 employees) represent 99% of all businesses by volume

These businesses employ 60% of the private sector workforce and generate 50% of private sector turnover

Yet 40% of US small businesses have no insurance; similar protection gaps exist in the UK

The frightening term: unknowingly underinsured, businesses don't realize their coverage is inadequate

Small business owners don't have risk management functions like large enterprises; they're experts in their field, not insurance

A business might start with basic coverage, then hire their first employee mid-year without realizing they need employer liability coverage

Vertical SaaS platforms with payroll functionality can detect this change and alert the business owner automatically

In construction, 20% of subcontractors cancel insurance before year end to save money, creating liability gaps platforms can address through compliance driven embedded insurance

Embedded insurance is approximately 3 to 4 years behind embedded fintech in development

The same challenges embedded fintech faced years ago, embedded insurance is facing now, but the Lego blocks are being put in place

Carriers and brokers are rapidly building API capabilities and digitizing operations at the backend

Insurance integration traditionally took 6 to 9 months; modern embedded solutions reduce this to one week

Hiscox CEO Aki Hussain predicts 15% of their European P&C business will be embedded within five years, a colossal amount

After embedding payments successfully, platforms look to add banking, payroll, accounting, and insurance to their stack

For payments, platforms want solutions that work today; for insurance, they want partners with 100-year track records

The winning formula combines established insurance expertise (WTW, Markel) with fast-moving technology (Kayna)

Software platforms want the best of both worlds: safety and credibility with speed and innovation

If your platform holds valuable data about your customers' businesses or assets, embedded insurance may be relevant

Look for pain points where your customers face underinsurance, high administrative burden, or compliance requirements

The embedded insurance model works best when you can offer coverage you can't get off-platform, tailored to your specific vertical

Start with one insurance product and prove value before expanding

Partner with established insurance brokers and carriers for credibility, paired with modern technology providers for speed

Integration time has dropped from months to weeks, making embedded insurance increasingly feasible

Trust and data control are paramount; customers need to know their proprietary data remains protected

Consider how changing risk profiles during policy periods could trigger proactive insurance adjustments