Paylode, founded in 2020, didn’t begin as an insurtech. Founder and CEO Mikhail Naumov first came up with his idea for an embeddable perks program engine while dealing with the stress of moving.

“The moment I signed this lease, I realized I have 12 other problems I need to solve now,” he said. “I need renters insurance. I need a moving truck. I need a storage unit. I need furniture. I need appliances. I have to do all this stuff now that I’m moving that I didn’t even think about. I thought, why do I have to go and look for all that stuff myself? Why can’t my building that I’m signing a lease with just send me a message that says, we’re excited to have you as a tenant. Here’s all the partners we recommend. We know moving is stressful. Here’s everything you’re going to need.”

Service providers taking part in an interface like this could also offer discounts for a landlord’s clients, and attract business. The first item Naumov thought of, insurance, caught the eye of carriers who at first were just offering their perks through Paylode. 

“When the insurance companies saw what we were doing, they wanted to use the other side of our platform,” he said. “They have millions of policyholders and are pretty desperate to get them to be more engaged with their brand, to take certain actions, to renew, to enroll in auto pay. If they could reward them with certain benefits, such as perks and discounts, that would be a great thing to add value.”

Making it easier for carriers to offer a perks program also helps them retain policyholders and fend off shopping, which can be an issue. “Policyholders constantly hop from policy to policy. What this means for insurers is that they have to find better ways to bring consistent value to their policyholders,” Naumov said. “Not just when there’s an accident, to be there for them, but actually bringing things of value to them continuously throughout the year. That’s where our platform comes in.”

Paylode provides carriers with software in the form of code that can be embedded in a carrier’s code for their mobile apps and websites. “It will render a beautiful perks program that’s branded to your company with your fonts and colors and perks for your customers,” Naumov said. “Then we track everything on the back end, all the clicks and conversions, so we can tell our clients, did you know the most favored perk is Safelite or car washes or oil changes. They could learn things about their policyholders they didn’t otherwise know.”

Paylode had 50 companies on board as users, including five of the top 20 insurers, when its service went live in March after a beta period, according to Naumov. Out of about 100 insurers that Naumov has approached, he estimates that 85 or 90 said they had been thinking about starting a perks program but had not proceeded because of the challenge of negotiating discounts one by one, as well as the cost, which can range from $350,000 to $500,000 a year. The Paylode platform lets carriers choose from perks that providers of other services are already willing to offer. “You can pick and choose the ones that resonate with your brand,” he added.

Paylode is backed with $5.5 million in seed funding from Susa Ventures, Vinyl Capital, Struck Capital, Day One Ventures and others. Naumov previously founded DigitalGenius, a customer service AI product.