“Can a digital-native private health insurer become the primary healthcare-and-payments app for privately insured Germans?”
Ottonova launched in 2015–2017 as Germany's first fully digital private health insurance (PKV), rebuilding the entire insurance stack around a mobile app: digital claims, telemedicine, concierge support. Beyond core insurance it has expanded into corporate health insurance (CrewCare), partnerships aimed at freelancers (Flow with Malt and Kontist), and most recently an embedded payments experience (Pay Connect) that lets policyholders both submit and pay medical bills in-app – blurring the line between insurance app and personal finance app.