Save Your Monkey insures bright future for Chathura
Chathura(left), Amanda and Danny
It must be in the stars, for they have aligned for Chathura Jayatissa, the founder and chief executive of Save Your Monkey, an online insurance platform which allows people to take an informed decision on how to protect themselves in times of an emergency.
The catchy name of the company is a play on the words Save Your Money. This in a nutshell is what Chathura and a dedicated team is offering customers who can click on their website (SaveYourMonkey.com) and compare the different wares on offer – choosing an insurance company – before making a decision.
They also have an easy to use interactive App which offers roadside assistance to drivers unlucky to be involved in an accident, or even such a mundane mishap like having a flat tire.
But before we go into details, let’s talk about how the planets aligned for Chathura. When the idea of his startup had crystallised – last year – it was time to think of a name.
“At the beginning of last year, we were thinking of names and it was the Year of the Monkey, so we decided on Save Your Monkey as it is not only a play on the words, ‘save your money’, but it fitted our logo perfectly,” explains Chathura. The K in the monkey is built into the N in Money, in a clever juxtaposition which is not only eye-catching, but also tells the whole story.
And the story is all about how you and I, the general public, can make the correct decision when it comes to deciding which insurance company to rely on in times of a crisis. No need to read the small print for Save Your Monkey will do that for you.
Many services
“We are brokers and offer a variety of services. Our website is customer friendly and allows them to browse through a number of insurance providers before deciding which one to go with and what sort of insurance policy be taken,” outlines Chathura.
They are collaborating with a number of insurance companies among them like Sri Lanka Insurance, Janashakthi, Union Assurance, LOLC Insurance, Amana Takaful Insurance, Ceylinco, HNB General, Orient and Continental Insurance.
They get a commission for every customer who comes on board.
“Selling insurance online is nothing new. But what we do is give customers a guarantee that you are getting the best price in the market and if you are getting a price better than us then we will match them a 100 per cent. In essence we are telling people, that in five minutes we will take care of issues which will normally take you a few days. We offer convenience,”pledges Chathura.
We are meeting at his newly-acquired office premises in Bambalapitiya, one day after the media launch of his App and website in the media last week.
Another protest by our future doctors on the streets of Colombo stymied my efforts to make it to the launch, and as such had to go one better – a one-on-one with Chathura and his wife Amanda, director and chief commercial officer, the next day.
This is better for the more earthy details about the genesis of the company are forthcoming. For instance, why they also decided to go into roadside assistance – which allows customers who have downloaded the App (for a subscription fee of Rs.300 per month) to request for an assessor who will arrive at the location of the accident inside 10 minutes, and a ‘Save Me’Â icon that gives help at a time of vehicle failure.
“A few months ago my friend and business partner Danny (Dhanushka Liyanage, chief financial officer and director), had an accident just in front of Police Park. He had to wait 45 minutes for the assessor to come, which is a long time.
“This has nothing to do with the insurance company for they have plenty on their plate with a huge staff to manage. It is hard managing assessors who are all over the place and trying to coordinate them,” explains Chathura.
Faster roadside
assistance
“We are trying to take that away and do it directly on our App. We will still have a call centre where people call in but the assessors will also have the App and will see a notification come up, see where the accident is and respond if they are the closest. It is just like a PickMe. It is the same with roadside assistance. We have a small team of 15, and initially just trying it out in Colombo but we hope to expand to most of the bigger cities soon.”
Chathura graduated with a degree in electronics engineering from Imperial College in London. The stars had aligned for him since his school days at Sri Sumangala College, Panadura.
“My dad was a teacher in physics and maths. He had worked overseas and when he returned, he got a position as the head of secondary at CIS (Colombo International School). Because of him, the fees for my brother and I were waived and I joined CIS in 1997 in Form One,” Chathura reveals.
It was his dad who paved the way for a degree in Imperial College too.
Having once again got a position in a school in the UK, the elder Jayatissa was able to pay for his finishing touches to both his sons’ education.
“I guess we were really lucky. If not for our dad we would not have been able to first come to CIS and then go on to the UK to do a degree. My dad paid every cent of my university education,” remembers Chathura fondly.
His dad also guided Chathura on the right path. As a teenager, he had always been interested in becoming an aeronautical engineer but he was advised to do electronics engineering.
“My dad said there was little scope for aeronautics in Sri Lanka and encouraged me to do a degree in electronics engineering. It was perhaps harder, but what it taught me was how to look at a problem and solve it. I had to get out of my comfort zone and looking back it was the best decision I took.”
He finished his degree in 2008 but only returned to Sri Lanka in 2012.
In-between he had tried his hand in finance, which was not his cup of tea, and also tourism – when he was in London he began sending tours to Sri Lanka, something he still does.
“We deal in inbound tourism and handle a niche market – sports tourism. We get groups of 50 to 60 children from schools all over the UK. There have been cricket tours from Harrow and Taunton, and we also handle other sports too.”
A few years ago his close friend Danny, he also went to CIS, told Chathura “Dude, we got to do something” as they talked about an idea that would revolutionise things in this country. And so Save Your Monkey was born – despite birth pains due to an archaic regulatory process which delayed them getting a brokerage licence.
But now the future looks good. “Sri Lanka’s problems can only be solved through innovation,” says Chathura. And he hopes Save Your Monkey will help provide simple solutions to the most common concerns of everyone who wants to take out an insurance policy.