Canada Is a Great Insurtech Test Market: Idea File

One life insurance distribution technology startup is taking root far, far away from the $2,800-per-month one-bedroom apartments of Manhattan and the $3,000-per-month studios of Mountain View, California.

Breathe Life Inc. is coming to life in Montreal, a city in Quebec where the average apartment rents for about $625 per month, in U.S. currency, and, according to the Montreal Gazette, has two bedrooms. And a living room.

(Related: 5 Insurtech Questions for 2019)

Ian Jeffrey, the company’s chief executive officer and co-founder, has worked in marketing and strategy for companies like Shutterfly and McAfee.

He said in a recent interview that he wanted to help set up an insurtech company partly because of exposure to his own father’s work for an insurance carrier.

“I wanted to do something that was meaningful, that could have an impact on the world,” Jeffrey said.

Another company co-founder saw the impact of life insurance benefits first-hand, when his own father died, Jeffrey said.

Jeffrey said Breathe Life can offer insurers new, practical ways to find exactly the right customers and get them to the point when and where those customers will have the highest propensity to get themselves covered.

More and more, “people are buying from their homes, at any time of the day or night,” Jeffrey said.

Jeffrey also talked about what it’s like to start a company in Montreal.

Here are four points about starting an insurtech company in Montreal, drawn from the interview and other sources.

1. There’s money in Montreal.

Diagram Ventures of Montreal recently helped Breathe Life raise $3.4 million in seed capital.