QBE is underwriting a new Australian direct car insurance offering aimed at women, founded by high-profile UK entrepreneur Sam White.

Stella Insurance promises to “challenge some of the male-dominated industries in Australia” and “unleash a surge of female energy and innovation”.

Its website says most car insurance products have previously been designed with men in mind, but after consultation Stella has launched a policy “specifically for women”.

The company will also donate a share of its profits to female entrepreneurs.

Ms White manages several insurance operations in the UK, including Pukka Insure and Freedom Brokers. She employs about 250 people in the UK, Gibraltar and Australia.

She told insuranceNEWS.com.au that an EU directive on gender discrimination in insurance prevented her from launching anything similar to Stella in the UK.

“It’s long been a frustration for me that in the UK I’m not able to appropriately reward women for their better driving abilities, so the opportunity to launch a female-centric insurtech in Australia has been the realisation of a long-term passion.”

Stella Insurance is a collaboration between publisher Bauer Media, Ms White’s Freedom Group, Viper Capital and investment firm Envest.

Envest is providing private equity funds, staff support, local insurance knowledge and access to its Envest Ecosystem.

“We’ve partnered up with Sam White and the Freedom Group to deliver the leadership and experience to bring this unique product to market,” Envest MD Greg Mullins said.

“Sam is really passionate about women’s causes and an incredible advocate for women generally, so we’re very excited to be part of this journey.”

Stella is an authorised representative of Allstate Insurance, which QBE already had a relationship with.

“[We are] underwriting the service as an innovative way of delivering insurance into the market,” a QBE spokesman told insuranceNEWS.com.au.