How Marijan Mumdziev CEO Of Amodo Raised $5M To Build A Connected Insurance Platform?

Marijan Mumdziev is the CEO at Amodo, a company offering a connected insurance platform. Marijan is active in the Internet of Things technologies for more than 10 years with a special focus on the impact it brings to the Insurance Industry. Marijan helped one of the leading Insurance companies in Europe deploy the first Usage-Based Insurance projects in the region and is continually working on raising the market awareness of the oncoming disruptive trends in the Insurance Industry.

Before Amodo, he was advising the Executive Board of several telecom companies in Europe on their Go To Market Strategies for the Internet of Things offering. He was acting as a Senior Expert at Ptolemus Consulting Group for Insurance Telematics.

In an exclusive interview with AsiaTechDaily, Marijan says:

It would be best if you found your way in life. Don’t live other people’s lives: cliché – but an important one.

I would like to be remembered as someone who supported people close to him.

The biggest challenge was to cater to all the needs of business operations and still perform all the necessary due diligence and investment process activities in parallel. If we would do it again, I would probably seek to delegate much more of my operational tasks.

Read on to know more about Marijan Mumdziev and his journey.

Please tell me about your personal background and What motivated you to get started with your company?

Marijan Mumdziev: I spent 15 years in the telecommunication industry working in different technical and business roles. In my last assignment before Amodo, I was heavily involved in the Internet of Things space, which led me to learn about the Insurance industry. When the opportunity to buy out one of the co-founders of Amodo unexpectedly came, I decided to take it. Soon afterward, I took over as the CEO of the company. I decided to take on this challenge, as it was a unique opportunity to disrupt an industry that needs disruption.

What is your current main product, and can you share any previous product pivot story to the current product?

Marijan Mumdziev: Amodo “Connected Insurance Platform” enables Insurance companies to develop a new product category based on behavioral data. Amodo platform leverages this data to help Insurance companies improve their underwriting and build new products. As the data is an essential prerequisite for this category of insurance products, and the customer needs to be willing to provide his data, customer engagement is a critical success factor. This is why Amodo puts such a great effort to build efficient and automated customer engagement technology.

The company was founded in 2013 in Zagreb.

Amodo raised $5M investment from Investors such as Speed Invest, Lead Ventures, SGH Capital, and Bee Next. The investment supported us in building the product and consequently acquiring a great customer base, including AIG, Porsche, and BNP Paribas. Amodo clients are on 5 continents and more than 20 countries, with the majority being in Europe and Asia.

The biggest challenge the industry faced at the beginning was educating the market on the value and need for this type of solution. In the 7 years that Amodo has been around, this changed radically, so now insurance companies are more educated and are increasingly looking for specific features and customized solutions to their specific use cases.

The primary motivation to build the Amodo Connected Insurance Platform was the obvious gap between customer expectations and what Insurance Products and services deliver. While customer expectations are changing quickly and shaped by influences from other industries, the insurance industry had difficulty catching up in many transformational activities.

How much money have you raised in total so far? When was the recent funding round?

Marijan Mumdziev: We have raised a $5M investment so far. Our recent funding round was closed in May 2020.

What were the internal decision processes in determining when to begin fund-raising, and what were the logistics for this? And how many investors have you met so far, and how did you meet these investors, and which channels worked best for you?

Marijan Mumdziev: There was an untapped opportunity on the market. We wanted to start tackling. After 7 years, we realized that we need to organize our technology in a more scalable way to get on board more customers and cater to new industries decided to begin with Series A funding. The process itself was quite straightforward – we already had contacts with quite a few investors from conferences and direct communication from before, so we updated the pitch deck and started approaching them to see who the best partner for this stage of our development is.

What are the biggest challenges and obstacles that you have faced in the process of fund-raising? If you had to start over, what would you do differently?

Marijan Mumdziev: The biggest challenge was to cater to all the needs of business operations and still perform all the necessary due diligence and investment process activities in parallel. If we would do it again, I would probably seek to delegate much more of my operational tasks.

What are your milestones for the next round? And what are your goals for the future?

Marijan Mumdziev: We have just received an investment with ambitious business goals to fulfill. We are fully focused on building and scaling our business further since the last investment is the only couple of months behind us.

How have you attracted users, and with what strategy have you grown your company from the start to now?

Marijan Mumdziev: We have developed a whole engagement suite connected to the analytics part of our platform for user acquisition and retention, where users can get automatic notifications and automatized product offerings based on data we collect.

There are different mechanisms, such as vouchers, discounts, competitions, etc. Which can be planned to make sure users are continuously engaged. We’ve learned that the key to obtaining and maintaining many of our os users is to offer tangible value to end users continuously.

Which has been the best marketing software tool for the growth of your startup, and why?

Marijan Mumdziev: Since we are a B2B business, working primarily in the insurance space, so far, we have used only conservative marketing automation tools. We are currently implementing a marketing automation tool as our expansion to new industries requires a radically different marketing approach and have decided to go with Hubspot.

What do most startups get wrong about marketing in general?

Marijan Mumdziev: Most startups overcomplicate the product, which makes the communication to potential clients very difficult and consequently inefficient.

How do you plan to expand globally?

Marijan Mumdziev: Due to the nature of its Services, we are a born Global company that could offer services to clients worldwide. With industry maturity, we also learned about the optimal product-market fit, and have built a certain geographic market prioritization.

How do you handle this COVID-19 outbreak situation for your company’s survival in the future?

Marijan Mumdziev: The COVID-19 pandemic had a profound effect on the market environment and so on Insurance as well. The new environment amidst COVID-19 demands a higher grade of digitalization in servicing customers, and also, consumer behavior changed rapidly in the segment of mobility. All those market forces represent an opportunity for our sector and Amodo technology.

What are the most common mistakes founders make when they start a company?

Marijan Mumdziev: Focusing on themselves and developing their ideas too much, and not being focused on the customer, pain points they are trying to solve, and market needs. It is great to keep developing your ideas, but the market that is expected to pay for them should also have a say.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received? And What advice do you have for someone who is interested in doing similar things like yours or in a similar direction?

Marijan Mumdziev: It would be best if you found your way in life. Don’t live other people’s lives: cliché – but an important one.

What are the top-three books or movies (TV series) that changed your life and why?

Marijan Mumdziev: Sun Tzu Art of war speaks about everyday situations and is applicable daily. It really shapes your life philosophy.

How do you keep yourself motivated every day?

Marijan Mumdziev: I kiss my daughter for a good morning, and instantly a sense of responsibility gets maxed out.

What are the one or two things that you would do differently to improve your life if you could go back to 10 years ago?

Marijan Mumdziev: Do more sports.

What would you like to be remembered for?

Marijan Mumdziev: I would like to be remembered as someone who supported people close to him.

You can follow Marijan Mumdziev here.

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