Insurtech Cover Genius reports a surge in insurance policy sales at its retail partners as an overwhelming number of consumers shop online and buy protection for their purchases.

Sales at Cover Genius’ travel partners also spiked, signalling travellers are looking to protect their trips against the unexpected after disruption from covid, the leading insurtech says.

Cover Genius champions “embedded” insurance and has partnerships with global brands in multiple industries. It says a “momentous” year of growth has pushed its policy sales past 10 million, seen the size of its team in Australia and New Zealand nearly double and sales of XCover – which is available on Amazon – rocket.

It says the award winning XCover distribution platform is suited to any line of insurance or warranty while XClaim is an interface for instant payment of approved claims.

Founded in 2014 by CEO Angus McDonald and Chris Bayley, a first employee in Google's Sydney office where he managed the insurance team, it is now licensed in more than 60 countries and almost every US state, to be valued by Bloomberg at $1 billion after tripling its gross written premium.

“The majority of digital customers want the convenience of protection when purchasing items or signing up to a service from their favourite brands,” Mr McDonald said. “Having helped partners integrate protection for almost a decade, we understand that it's the key to making insurance relevant for customers and brands – which are best placed to curate it for each individual's needs.”

Cover Genius has partnerships with travel brands Booking.com, Skyscanner and Agoda; airlines Ryanair and Icelandair; retailers Flipkart, Shopee and eBay as well as logistics and ticketing brands and more.

It employs almost 300 staff, with 118 in Australia, according to LinkedIn, and has offices in Sydney, New York, San Francisco, London, Amsterdam, Tokyo, Singapore, Seoul, Kuala Lumpur and Manila.