Q&A Interview with Neuroprofiler Business Developer, Clara Astier

In the fourth in our series of blogs going behind the scenes on Insurtech Isle of Man’s Accelerator Program, we hear from Clara Astier, a Business Developer at Neuroprofiler.

Q1 – Tell us about yourself and your business

I’m a business developer at Neuroprofiler, representing the company from Milan with the goal to expand it into the UK and Europe. Neuroprofiler is a French wealth tech app where we help financial advisers leverage complex financial products through behavioural finance.

For some context, legally in Europe when someone invests, financial advisers can ask the person about their knowledge of finance, experience and appetite towards sustainable funds – this can be for investment in bonds, financial assets and life insurance etc. So we provide a questionnaire based on behavioural finance. This helps the process to be much smoother for the customer as we use behavioural finance to better understand the profile of the person. If we can analyse their profile we can then recommend products to better match their ability to invest. Importantly this is very helpful for banks as they can then sell more complex and suitable products to people.

Neuroprofiler is growing throughout Europe – operating in Italy, Switzerland, France, Luxembourg, and now in the process of operating in the Isle of Man.

Q2 - Why did you apply for the Insurtech Accelerator Program?

As a start-up we’re always looking for these kind of incubator and accelerator programs. We also regularly look out for what competitors are doing in this space. We already have some clients in Switzerland so that’s how we discovered F10 and were able to reach out to them.

To be involved in the Program is very important regarding the contacts we’re making, and the visibility and credibility we’ve received from F10 – as being selected by them means someone analysed our company and believed in our business.

Q3 - How have you found the Program so far?

The Program has been great so far, we’ve learned a lot about how to approach and pitch to big companies. It’s also been great to work with the supportive regulatory environment, as well as to meet and network with businesses on the Island and collaborate with the other start-ups on the Program.

Q4 - Have you found anything particularly interesting or challenging on the Program?

It was fairly challenging at the beginning of the Program as the work was quite intense – including learning complicated points around selling and working on our network, and turning it into opportunities. We talked about some quite technical and important subjects and learning how to sell to prospective clients and network effectively.

Q5 - How have you found working with the business community as a whole?

It was a great experience to work with the Isle of Man business community. Being able to work with the regulator is very important, and the key for our company’s success is to get on with the regulator – so we found this engagement immensely helpful. The Isle of Man’s appetite for innovation is great too, as you feel like the whole community is listening to you and what you have to offer. It was great to see the regulator being on board with innovation and up for new ideas. This gives a dynamic impression of the ecosystem on the Island on what are typically quite traditional subjects, i.e. life insurance. We’ve had conversations with the regulators of other countries before, but it’s fairly hard to get in these meetings initially.

We’ve also really enjoyed working with the different start-ups on the Program as we’ve been able to share ideas and feedback on each other’s work. It’s very empowering to listen to and learn from other people and see how passionate they are about their businesses.

I’m also looking forward to the Demo Day on the Isle of Man in January and having the opportunity to meet with the other start-ups and other businesses on the Island again.

Q5 - What are your future plans for your business?

Our key plan is to expand our business. In the short-term we’re working on a new product called Edu-Profiler which is an e-learning platform to help private investors and professionals in financial services to learn more about the mechanisms of financial products and help them invest in those. We are essentially trying to create the ‘Duolingo of finance’ and sell this to lots of people. Longer-term we want to expand further across Europe and also into other countries.