Chris Kalinski, a tech entrepreneur and founder of Redkik, explains that he used to own a truck carrier and it always struck him as odd that there were no readily available per shipment policies available. It also created the issue of associating transactional revenue to pre-paid annual cost (insurance). 

“I have also consulted for insurance companies in the cargo space and discovered the huge discrepancy of cargo shipped and cargo insured – about 50% of global cargo is uninsured during shipment. The other observation I took back was that the administrative effort to issue and bill for per shipment policies is too high to traditionally offer this,” Kalinski says. 

Change the Game

Redkik’s solution will overthrow status quo and bring flexibility to the market. The service will allow consignors to obtain fast by-shipment insurance coverage and get customized pricing and discount options due to the continually learning risk analysis engine.

According to the Redkik game plan, this will, in turn, incentivize casual consignors to obtain insurance for individual shipments which have, so far, required an expensive annual policy – and even make it cost effective for freight forwarders who choose to differentiate their offering by including insurance within the shipping fee.

“We are launching a solution that provides the quote and issues the policy in real time at the time of booking the cargo move. This can only be achieved through direct integrations to the freight forwarders/booking systems and a super performant policy quoting and admin system. A cargo policy can now be offered, booked and paid for at the same time and through the same channel when the actual shipment is booked,” Kalinski explains.  

MVP in the Pipeline

Presently, Redkik is in the process of launching the first version of their system. The startup’s revenue generating Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is coming out in January 2021 both in the US and Europe. 

“From there, we will continue to build the business through adding insurance carriers and freight forwarders, as well as continue building the intelligence in the platform.”

Kalinski’s “dayjob” is as Senior Strategic Consultant for Oxford Management Consultants, focusing on technology, IOT, Cold chain and Food Safety solutions. To realize his vision for Redkik, he got in contact with the Finnish technology consulting and software development company Nolwenture.  Redkik and Nolwenture started off on their common journey in the beginning of 2020, with Nolwenture serving as a trustworthy and reliable development partner due to their experience in AI and high volume applications.

Support Available

Joensuu-based Nolwenture also introduced Kalinski to the local startup community – as well as Business Finland. Business Finland has helped Redkik in understanding the availability and level of support in Finland, in both the short and long term, for a tech-entrepreneur founders and international orientated startups. Business Finland has also granted Redkik Oy €50,000 to develop its service further.

“Business Finland has been quite helpful and really good to work with,” says Kalinski. “Their support accelerated the development and launch of this product by at least 6 to 9 months, as it allowed us to focus on developing the solution, the market and the business, instead of continuously trying to raise funds.”

Janne Kari, Head of Invest in Finland, ICT, is excited to see a startup with considerable disruption potential such as Redkik choose Finland for its base of operations.

“Redkik’s solution will positively disrupt the cargo insurance markets. It showcases Finland as the place to develop cutting-edge market leaders for both Insurtech market and AI Business,” believes Kari.

No Place Like Home

Chris Kalinski feels that Finland is a great fit for his company, commenting that the country boasts a current and future talent pool, a distinguished ease of doing business and a solid degree of research and development funding support, not least from Business Finland.

“Finland is a full member of EU with an enviable reputation for being innovative and dependable – so making Finland our home was not such a tough decision.”

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