When Nicole Mwesigwa lost her husband, she encountered firsthand just how challenging life insurance could be. The process felt unnecessarily cumbersome and frustrating, particularly given the emotional stakes at play.
Yet while life insurers pay out the vast majority of claims – 96.7% in the UK last year, according to the Association of British Insurers (Forbes Advisor) – the process itself remains riddled with inefficiencies that can leave families like Nicole’s struggling at their most vulnerable moments.
The ordeal revealed an alarming disconnect between what the industry could offer Nicole and the experience she was faced with.
The process was cumbersome, frustrating and downright uncomfortable, revealing gaps that Hari Srinivasan had long observed as an industry insider.
For the two, this combination of personal and professional insight became the foundation for iCover.
Founded as a COVID-era startup in 2020, iCover launched its first client in early 2022 and has since been shaping a more streamlined approach to life insurance.
Going from strength-to-strength following its $5m Series A in August of 2022, the firm’s efforts have been recognised by FinTech Global, as the Missouri-based company landed a spot on the InsurTech100 list for 2025.
In a candid interview, Hari Srinivisan, the company’s co-founder and CEO, sat down with Harry Slade to open up on its journey.
Technology as a competitive edge
At the heart of iCover’s offering is its QUI™ technology-based eApp and AI-driven algorithmic underwriting engine.
These tools are designed to address the core challenges insurers face: driving sales and reducing acquisition costs. “Our platform helps insurers sell more at a bare minimum 20–25% and helps reduce acquisition cost by 30–40%,” says Hari, co-founder and CEO of iCover.
This is underscored in the numbers, as despite 60% of people believing life insurance would benefit their family, only around 35% actually hold a policy (Direct Line Group). For Srinivasan, that gap represents a social obligation to make coverage more accessible.
iCover’s approach contrasts sharply with traditional applications. Most eApps rely on reflexive logic, asking the same questions repeatedly.
“We offer the industry’s only non-reflexive eApp powered by QUI technology,” Hari notes.
Combined with the AI-driven algorithmic underwriting engine, the platform enables a five-minute life insurance buying experience, far faster than the typical industry process.
The technology adapts dynamically to user responses, aiming to reduce stress and streamline what has historically been a complex procedure.
Beyond speed and convenience, iCover is positioning itself as both a technology provider and a product innovator.
“We are leveraging our intellectual property to develop innovative life insurance products and distribution channels, creating a clear competitive advantage for iCover,” Hari says.
Every product and platform is intended to reinforce the central idea that technology should simplify and empower the insurance experience, rather than complicate it.
Building on this foundation, iCover Direct™ serves as a comprehensive life, health, and wellness marketplace, linking users directly with insurance carriers and partners.
By integrating with the underwriting engine, it ensures a seamless experience from product discovery to policy issuance, making insurance simpler and more accessible.
For more complex applications, iCover offers expert manual underwriting carried out by certified professionals, including FALU®, FLMI®, CLU®, ALU®, Masters in Pharmacy, and M.D. holders.
Standard case reviews are completed within 24 hours, with accelerated 2–4 hour options and on-demand support to maintain efficiency.
Security remains a top priority, with strict access controls, audit trails, and SOC2 compliance. Generative AI assists underwriters in making precise, well-informed decisions, combining human expertise with advanced technology to handle even the most complicated cases efficiently.
Scaling for the future
Looking ahead, iCover has defined several key priorities for the next three to five years.
These include launching new life insurance products through its direct-to-consumer channel, iCover Direct; introducing iCover Gateway, a brokerage platform; and refining Spark, its predictive AI underwriting assistant.
“Building and scaling these platforms will be our focus,” Hari adds, signalling a deliberate, tech-driven approach to growth.
Market momentum suggests this is more than possible. U.S. individual life insurance new annualised premium rose 8% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2025 to $3.94bn, driven largely by consumer appetite for more flexible, tech-enabled products (Insurance Business).
The contrast between iCover’s streamlined approach and traditional industry processes is clear.
Where paperwork once piled high and underwriting could lag weeks behind submission, iCover’s technology provides faster, more transparent outcomes for insurers and customers alike.
Its recognition in FinTech Global’s InsurTech100 underscores the relevance of these innovations at a time when the insurance sector is increasingly embracing digital solutions.
For Srinivasan, the company’s journey comes full circle, grounded in the personal experiences that inspired its creation. What began as a response to a deeply human challenge has evolved into a technology-driven solution that aims to make life insurance faster, simpler, and more accessible.
In the end, a life insurance policy is more than just a flimsy piece of paper, it is a promise to your consumer at their weakest time, when every inconvenience can be magnified. And at iCover, that promise can now be secured in just five minutes.
