In 2016, when Alan first launched its health insurance product in France, it was the first new health insurance company in 30 years. Now that the startup announces its expansion to Canada, Alan will break another new record: There hasn't been a new health insurance company there since 1957.

In many ways, Alan treats health insurance as software as a service. It is a subscription-first product that can be optimized using technology. For example, Alan has built its own claim management system. The flagship product of Alan is health insurance, intended to fill in the gaps in the national healthcare system of France. French companies are obligated to provide health insurance for all the employees while they are beginning their work there.

Additional services the start-up added were to maximize consumer satisfaction, attract new customers, and attain repeat deals. For example, the company offers its Alan members an opportunity to chat with doctors, get prescription glasses, and consume preventive care content on mental health or back pain all through its mobile app.

While the company has certainly raised a ton of money — and just announced a neat Series F round worth 173 million euros, for instance — Alan's focus on geographic coverage has been relatively narrow. Apart from its home country, the service is available in Belgium and Spain.

It's such a big market, however, that it doesn't necessarily need to launch everywhere to find new clients. It currently covers 675,000 people across its three markets. Given that nearly 100% of the population in France, Belgium, and Spain has a health insurance contract, Alan is still a challenger.

But that hasn't apparently slowed down Alan's expansion efforts. The company has acquired a federal OFSI license in Canada, which entitles it to officially operate as an insurance company in that country. It is setting up a local board and a local team comprising insurance and healthcare experts.

"You cannot use your European license in Canada. You need to apply for a new license. But then the rules in terms of solvency, distribution, risk management, and so on are very, very similar," co-founder and CEO Jean-Charles Samuelian-Werve told TechCrunch.

Alan is basically bringing the entire Alan product suite to Canada and will hire 50 people in the country over the next few years.

It is surprising that Alan did not pick a European country as the second country for market expansion. Part of the reason will be evident in Alan's capitalization table: Teachers' Venture Growth (TVG), the venture fund of the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board led Alan's Series E round. But with Canada, Alan had something to prove.

"I try to be very long-term-oriented in how we make our decisions at Alan. And when I picture Alan in 10 years from now, I don't see us just as a European company. I see us as a global company," said Samuelian-Werve.

Canada also has a large-enough market, both federally run health insurance and private health insurance. Government-sponsored care covers primary care, but well over half the healthcare, some $60 billion annually, is administrated through health insurance programs. And not much has changed lately.

"In Canada, there are only 20 [health insurance providers] that have at least 1% in market share. That number is 400 in France … It's really, really uncompetitive [in Canada],"
Alan's general manager for Canada, Mark Goad, said. "And if you look at the satisfaction ratings with the net promoter score, it's at -8 in Canada, whereas Alan operates at +70."

Just like the Canadians, whom Alan is going to distribute through employers. Actually, usually, employers opt for a single health insurance cover that will cater to the whole workforce of that particular company.

55 companies in Canada have already shown interest in testing Alan. The company is going to onboard one customer every week from January 2025. Then it will roll out its self-signup portal sometime in the second quarter of 2025.