Wolt, a Helsinki-based technology company widely known for its local commerce platform, has experienced phenomenal growth in its short lifespan. Founded ten years ago in 2014, the tech company now operates across 27 countries in over 500 cities.

“Wolt is – essentially – building a new infrastructure,” reads the tech trailblazer’s website. This involves Wolt acting as a facilitator between businesses, courier partners, and customers, with a succinct vision of “making cities better places to live”. The company’s initial focus was on restaurant food delivery, but it’s recently expanded its offering; customers can now order from pretty much any type of grocery store, retail shop, or boutique in their neighborhood using Wolt. 

Today, the platform serves millions of customers via partnerships with over 240,000 courier partners. Flexible app-based work is a valuable addition to the labor market, and partnering with Wolt helps people achieve their goals by earning what they need, when they need it, on their own terms.

Here, we take a look at the Wolt-Onsi partnership, with insights from Wolt’s Head of Insurance and Risk Management, Garrett Olson.

The problem: finding an insurance provider to enhance the financial wellbeing of workers

When Wolt came to Onsi, they were looking for an insurance provider that could help them deliver a best-in-class partner experience for their courier partners. With a vision to deliver more value for their courier partners, they felt their current solution wasn’t delivering the innovation, stability, or user experience Wolt had envisioned for its workers.

When we first spoke with Wolt, we heard that they were looking for a partner that had three key features: 

1. Ability to scale globally - the global platform needed an insurance programme that could be efficiently rolled out to serve courier partners across three continents and 27 countries. 

2. Suitability for different employment models - the programme would also need to cater to different partnering models and local nuances to ensure all regulations were met.

3. Comms and support personalised to location - with presence around the world, Wolt wanted to ensure the partner was able to support multiple language capabilities – including Japanese and Hebrew.

Beyond insurance, Wolt wanted a provider that could offer ongoing education and engagement for its courier partners, too. 

“As a company, we aim to provide a safety net for all of our courier partners while they are delivering for Wolt,” Garrett explains. 

Ultimately, they were looking for a partner that shared their vision of innovating the world of work  – helping to forge a more sustainable, fairer working environment for its courier partners - and that’s something we could help with 😉 

The solution: a robust, global insurance offering focusing on innovation and user experience

The five key reasons Wolt chose Onsi to replace its existing insurance provider were:

1. The stability and consistency of our global offering

2. Innovative and usage-based pricing

3. The mobile-friendly digital claims experience

4. Our innovative policies designed around different partner models 

5. The worker-centric experience we provide

“We chose to partner with Onsi because they have emerged as the market-leading platform to deliver a worker-centric programme,” Garrett says. “With Onsi, we custom-built a robust cross-border programme of protections with a digital claims experience suited exactly to our courier partners’ needs.” 

The partnership has seen Wolt roll its Onsi programme out across the world “fast, seamlessly and with immediate positive results” – delivering a highly regarded safety net to 240,000 of its courier partners.

“Unlike many of the off-the-shelf, costly, inflexible, and low-tech insurance solutions in the market, Onsi truly has an innovative insurance product fit for workers. It not only solves the real gap in cover by providing meaningful insurance protections, but they also have built an elite team with a vision that will finally address the needs of millions of people.” 

The results: significant cost reduction, streamlined internal operations, and a sustainable, fair platform for courier partners

After rolling out its Onsi insurance programme, Wolt saw tangible results – fast: 

1. Rock-solid financial support, whenever it’s needed - In 2023 alone, Wolt has provided over €1.1 million worth of financial support to its courier partners who needed its help. While most gig-worker accident programs take up to 6 weeks to compensate courier partners, our program compensates couriers in 5 days or less.   

2. Highly satisfied members - The member support team has a brilliant 92% customer satisfaction score, meaning that its courier partners have felt listened to and supported through their journey with Wolt

3. Courier Partners are feeling safer than ever -in one Wolt market, 64% said the insurance makes them feel safe (exactly how we want them to feel while working) 

“Onsi has built insurance from the ground up with both workers and platforms in mind, making it easy to not only provide a best-in-class service for our courier partners, but also for our team at Wolt.”  

And as for the user experience factor that was so high up on Wolt’s list of priorities? According to Garrett, Onsi have met expectations, and then some:

“[Wolt’s] user experience with Onsi is unparalleled; everything from the user interface, simplified workflows, slack integration, a full suite of communication & education, dashboards that provide excellent insights and an efficient and effective claims solution that caters to our courier partners’ desires.” 

Garrett finishes by touching on something very close to our own hearts at Onsi– the need to continue to strive for a brighter, fairer, and more sustainable industry for independent workers: 

“Onsi is a best-in-breed platform and, behind the leadership of Anthony and Benjamin, their trajectory is limitless. I think very highly of them and am excited to partner with them in driving the required innovation across the industry.”

Want to learn more about Onsi’s insurance? Just head here.

www.wolt.com/en