Ola Jacob: Demystifying Parametric Insurance

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Ola Jacob, Business Development Director for the UK & Ireland at Descartes Underwriting, a specialist Parametric Insurance MGA and Insurer.

On today's episode, Ola will provide an educational deep dive into the world of parametric insurance. He'll explain what parametric insurance is, how it differs from traditional insurance, and why it is gaining traction as a data-driven solution to cover risks like natural catastrophes. 

Ola will share real-world examples of how parametric insurance has provided significant value to corporate clients and industries adopting this innovative approach as part of their risk management strategies.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• When I started in insurance, I didn’t know much about it, but when you strip it down to its bare bones, it’s about making good on your promise. That was a big draw for me because it felt altruistic. When it’s done right, and someone receives their cheque for the claim after everything has gone smoothly, it's the best feeling in the world. The stigma we get from bad experiences is what damages insurance's image.
• The best solutions are ones people don’t know about and that don’t get in the way, making things better. If you’re going to create a solution that helps, it should have another login or portal, something clunky that gets in people’s way; it should be cool and slick like a Rolex.
• Innovation can’t be done on your own, when I won the Insurance Times Technology Champion of the Year Award, it was a reflection of the whole industry and all the people I’ve met on my journey that have been open to change. I don’t think we’ve done it yet. I think there’s so much more change to be had, and I’m excited to see how we can push further.
• The biggest problem with parametric insurance is the name, which sounds so complicated. But it’s actually the simplest form of insurance there is. The Mantra behind all parametric policies is: When a pre-agreed parameter is met, then a pre-agreed payout is made. This forms the backbone of all parametric contracts. That differs from indemnity, which is a promise to put you back in the same condition you were in before the loss; parametric insurance is pretty much black-and-white.

BEST MOMENTS

‘If you add parametric to indemnity, it could really be a game changer that could change the face of how we do insurance forever.’

‘I’ve always wanted to come in and do something to help change insurance for the better with technology.’

‘In parametric products, the parameters must be measurable and independent, something that’s not controllable by somebody else, like weather.’

‘Clients recover, using parametric insurance, with 10X less limit than they’d previously because of the speed of payout. And they’d planned how they would use that payout because they already knew what they were going to get if this event happened.’

ABOUT THE GUEST

When recording this podcast, Ola Jacob was the Business Development Director for the UK & Ireland at Descartes Underwriting, a specialist Parametric Insurance MGA and Insurer covering Natural Catastrophe exposure globally. He is today the Business Development Director at Global Parametrics.

With over 13 years of experience in the London Market Insurance Sector, Ola has worked on UK Retail, Product Recall, Terrorism, Onshore Energy, and Parametric insurance.

Ola's background in Human-Computer Interaction and Psychology has fueled his passion for developing new approaches to risk transfer and managing risk for clients. As one of the pioneers of parametric insurance, Ola helped build a distribution strategy for one of the first successful parametric solutions in the London Market. In 2024, he was named Insurance Times Technology Champion of the Year for his innovative work.

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ABOUT THE HOST

Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet.

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