SA’s LifeQ launches wearable, integrated insurance and health management solution

South African e-health company LifeQ has commercially launched VeoSens, a wearable-based, fully integrated insurance and health management solution developed in partnership with Samsung and Hannover Re.

Backed by a range of institutional and family office investors, with offices in South Africa, the United States (US) and the Netherlands, LifeQ is a provider of biometrics and health information derived from wearable devices.

The company has now partnered with 1Life, a leading direct life insurer in South Africa, to launch 1Life Pulse, utilising VeoSens.

The aim is to bring life insurance, technology and science together in a simple way, providing consumers with attainable, dynamic, long-term value for making better choices regarding their wellbeing.

All new qualifying 1Life policy holders that take out cover for ZAR1 million (US$58,000) or more will be given a Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2, chipped against their 1Life policy number. As soon as customers take up cover they earn an immediate ZAR50,000 (US$3,000) towards their life cover. From there, each time the watch is strapped on, all data collected contributes towards additional cover that can grow by up to ZAR200,000(US$12,000) over two years.

“Our offering is underpinned by the fact that, as your life and health changes, so too does your cover,” said 1Life chief executive officer (CEO) Laurence Hillman. “This is a world-first and we are excited at the prospect of what this will mean for the consumer and their capacity to make better choices around their wellbeing.”

LifeQ, Hannover Re and Samsung have worked together for over two years to create the VeoSens solution, providing insurers with a unique consumer engagement, digital data collection and innovation platform. VeoSens utilises LifeQ’s solutions, which are based on computational systems biology; modelling the body’s physiological systems and how they interact with each other.

LifeQ-enabled solutions fill the gap between medical devices and basic consumer devices, providing business grade health information to enable real health and risk management.

“VeoSens is a great example of how LifeQ combines life sciences and technology to bring novel life changing solutions to the market with clear economic benefits to both businesses and consumers,” says Laurie Olivier, LifeQ’s CEO.

“Without information that is more accurate than generated on the average wearable, and forward-looking business leaders that are willing to embrace state of the art technologies, this would not have been possible. We want to thank Samsung, Hannover Re and 1Life for being great partners towards setting a new bar in the life insurance industry.”