Christiane Gross
LactApp
International Business Dev Lead
Qorus and Capgemini announce the second awards category of Open Finance Community – NewTech Challenge: Insurtech. They aim to appraise and recognize the most innovative projects, initiatives and ideas in the Insurtech industry. One of them is presented by LactApp and its International Business Development Lead Christiane Gross tells us more about it.
About LactApp
LactApp is AI-enabled postnatal maternity advice and breastfeeding support. The mobile App is available in English, Spanish, and Portuguese and gives personalized, evidence-based expert answers to mothers on infant feeding and maternity. Downloaded over 700,000+ times worldwide, it leverages over 20M+ real-world consultations to create proprietary AI that will reduce costs to the healthcare system.
Best Practices In Open Insurance / Qorus - Capgemini NewTech Challenge Virtual Ceremony
What business problem do you solve? Why is it important to your clients?
The WHO recommends exclusive breastfeeding for the first 6 months of a baby, and each year over 80% of mothers in developed nations initiate breastfeeding. But by 6 months, only around 30% still do so. Breastfeeding looks and sounds easy and natural, but many challenges can lead a mother to quit early, even if she intended to breastfeed for longer, because the positive health benefits to mother and child have been widely researched and communicated.
LactApp empowers mothers to breastfeed for as long as they wish to through expert, confidential and non-judgmental personalized advice and support. Suboptimal breastfeeding rates cause over 800,000 child deaths and 20,000 mothers' deaths yearly (Lancet, 2016). Breastfeeding has long-lasting benefits on the child's immune system; reduces infections and obesity, SIDS, cardiovascular diseases and mother's breast cancer and is generally linked to better health outcomes on a population level.
We mistakenly think that the problem we are facing is low breastfeeding rates. But this is only the consequence: the real problem is that women who want to breastfeed do not find the information, professional support, or peer support to facilitate it. 75% of our users say that LactApp has contributed to prolonging their breastfeeding journey in our user survey, and 57% have avoided medical appointments due to clarifying questions with LactApp, which directly translates into a high cost-saving potential for any healthcare system and insurer.
Can you briefly describe your product or solution and in which countries do you operate?
LactApp is the first digital lactation consultant in your pocket that gives new mothers customized expert answers to breastfeeding and maternity questions powered by AI technology. LactApp is a mobile app that can be downloaded for free on any iOs or Android device worldwide and is available in English, Spanish and Portuguese. Currently, most users are located in Spain, the United States, Mexico, and the Latam region. B2B customers such as health insurance companies and employers can purchase the LactApp Premium subscription for their patients and employees. Several large organizations in Spain, such as Adeslas Health Insurance are already using this service.
Adeslas is Spain's leading private health insurance company and provides LactApp Premium subscriptions to their policyholders. Further B2B collaborations are in the pipeline.
What is your core value proposition? What are the unique features you offer to your customers?
LactApp is a unique mother-centered app, that stands out as a novelty use of artificial intelligence due to its unique growing data set in the field of breastfeeding support. The mother can set up her and her baby's profile in the App and will get personalized breastfeeding and maternity advice based on her personal profile. LactApp counts on the biggest real-world dataset on postnatal questions and answers, which is training AI, that will give mothers more quality consistent, less biased (because it will not depend on the person who answers own judgment), and scientifically validated answers. The scope of the maternity content in the app is unrivaled covering pregnancy and postpartum, and there are unique features such as educational video sessions, bite-size videos of the day, personalized tests, automatic guided questionnaires, and tracking options among others.
Provided your solution has already been implemented in financial institutions, which companies have already adopted this solution?
Adeslas is Spain's leading private health insurance company and provides LactApp Premium subscriptions to their policyholders. Further B2B collaborations are in the pipeline.
Can you describe in a few words one of these collaborations (What was the objective? What were the main challenges? What results did your client obtain thanks to the implementation of your solution?)
In 2022, as part of their digital health strategy, the Spanish leader in private health insurance, Adeslas, contracted the services of LactApp to offer better support to its policyholders during pregnancy, postpartum and breastfeeding. It was decided that all Adeslas policyholders who wished to do so would have a paid subscription to LactApp PLUS, which includes the premium content of LactApp and is ongoing. The results of a customer survey were as follows: 82,3% of users said that LactApp has helped them improve their breastfeeding experience, and 100% would recommend LactApp to a friend.
LactApp generates revenue B2C with premium subscriptions to the LactApp Plus premium functionalities. However, in the future, LactApp's biggest revenue share and growth will come from the B2B business.
What is your business model and how easy is it to duplicate to additional geographies?
LactApp generates revenue B2C with premium subscriptions to the LactApp Plus premium functionalities. However, in the future, LactApp's biggest revenue share and growth will come from the B2B business. An ongoing contract with Adeslas, Spain's biggest private healthcare insurance, was signed last year, providing premium subscriptions for their patients, and further negotiations are underway to sell LactApp Premium subscriptions to health insurance companies or as an employee benefit to big employers. Currently, consumers pay €9.99 monthly or €39.99 for 6 monthly subscriptions. It is very easy to replicate LactApp to other geographies as long as it is in the same language. The Spanish version is relevant in the entire Latam region and the English content is currently being expanded.
Where do you see your fintech company in 5 years? What impact or difference are you trying to achieve for financial institutions in your portfolio?
LactApp is a healthtech company in women's health. Financial institutions and especially health insurance companies will hugely benefit from the impact of this solution, by providing better service and care for insured families.
