What you need to know
- A new startup is offering insurance for influencers worried about being hacked.
- Accounts can be insured and paid out on if hacked, giving influencers time to get the issue fixed.
- Prices start at $8 per month depending on the account.
Obviously all of those photos of your lunch and the neighbor's cat are important, but for those who make a living from their Instagram account, losing access to it can be a big deal. Now, a company is offering an insurance product that will pay out should they get hacked.
An Israel-based startup called Notch is offering plans that start from just $8 per month, with TechCrunch reporting that policies will pay up should an account be lost. A daily payment will be made to cover losses of income, with each policy created based on a user's individual circumstances.
In one example, a $38 per month policy would cover an influencer for a total of $22,000 per year should the worst happen.
TechCrunch reviewed a sample insurance policy, which quoted a $459 annual fee (or about $38 a month) for insurance that pays out $244 for each day that a creator can't get into their account after a hack. These daily reimbursements kick in after a 48 hour waiting period and max out at $22,000 (or 90 days) of payments per year.
Each account is unique, which is why Notch says it takes that into account when putting together coverage.
"We look at the follower count, engagement, where the audience is from, the vertical where the influencer works, how many posts per month that person usually uploads, how many of them are sponsored posts…" CEO Rafael Broshi explains. With that information, Notch can estimate how much sponsored content a creator posts a month, and how much money someone of their caliber would make off of each post. Then, the company can calculate a monthly fee for coverage.
The policies only cover hacks, so Instagram influencers who wake up one morning to find their account has been taken over by someone else should be good to go. But those who wind up suspended are out of luck — at least for now. Notch says that it will likely offer an "add-on to the policy in the near future, which covers suspensions as well."
While this is unlikely to be of much use to most of us, there must be a market for this kind of thing otherwise Notch wouldn't be putting in the work to offer a solution. Influencers who rely on their Instagram account to make money can be wiped out when they lose it, something this will hopefully help with — at least for a period long enough that the account can be returned to its rightful owner.
The new company is already off to a solid start — it's been backed by creators Nas Daily and Casey Neistat and has so far raised $7 million via "an extended seed round led by Lightspeed Ventures."
