Irish-founded platform Yonder signs deal with Irish Life

Company says it made deal to help employees access health insurance and retirement benefits

Irish-founded platform Yonder has signed a deal with Irish Life to help companies and their Irish-based employees access health insurance and retirement benefits.

The company, which is aiming to simplify health and pension benefits for global businesses and employees through the use of a 100 per cent digital platform and app, will offer Irish Life products exclusively to its clients, giving the insurance company a way to access small and growing companies.

Yonder’s platform aims to remove barriers to access to benefits on a global scale, making it simple for businesses to provide benefits, such as health insurance and pensions, regardless of where employees are based. Employers can create packages easily, while employees can use it to secure local health and retirement benefits. People enroll through a mobile app and manage benefits from local providers in real time. Founded in 2022 by chief executive Luke Mackey, chief technology officer Patrick O’Boyle and director of engineering Deepak Baliga, Yonder already has a number of partnerships with insurance and investment providers that offer health, dental, vision and pensions benefits.

It’s a far more ingrained partnership and it really benefits them because it’s ‘tech first’ and that means that you remove a lot of the administration that would come with a standard brokerage relationship.

—  Luke Mackey

“Yonder is a platform uniquely designed and built for modern companies and their employees,” said chief executive Luke Mackey. “We’ve been working with Irish Life for a little while now, not only on the health insurance side, but on the pension side too. We make it possible for companies to easily enrol and enrol manage that product in our mobile app. It removes a ton of administration from the employer side, which would usually come if you didn’t have these types of integrations. What we’ll be doing over the course of the next few years is doing a lot more of these integrations internationally.”

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Mr Mackey said it differed from the traditional brokerage relationship in that it was more integrated on the technical side of the partnership. “It’s a far more ingrained partnership and it really benefits them because it’s ‘tech first’ and that means that you remove a lot of the administration that would come with a standard brokerage relationship.”

The partnership came through Irish Life’s association with not-for-profit body InsTech.ie, an initiative that brings together insurance firms and fintech to foster innovation in the sector.

“Yonder provides an impressive digital solution for companies looking to offer key employee benefits like health insurance and pensions to small or remote teams in a world where user experience and ease of reconciliation is key,” said Irish Life’s Damian Fadden. “Yonder has made this experience effortless and we’re excited to work closely with their team to provide a best-in-class experience for our mutual customers.”

Yonder is targeting international providers to provide a similar service in European markets such as the UK, Portugal, Spain and Germany. The company, which raised a €2.6 million pre-seed round in September last year, employs 10 people, with two more expected to come on board.

Ciara O'Brien

Ciara O'Brien

Ciara O'Brien is an Irish Times business and technology journalist