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Case Study

dacadoo (B): Building momentum

By James E. Henderson, Anne Elkaim, Onur Dincer, Frédérique Gremeaux and Vanessa Smets

10 pages

May 2022

Reference: IMD-7-2326

For the past ten years, dacadoo, a healthtech and insurtech start-up based in Switzerland, has been developing and operating its digital health engagement solution, including mobile applications, exploring ways to monetize the patented and AI-based health score it developed. Dacadoo has a dual objective: It aims to help users achieve and maintain healthy lifestyles with its proprietary “health score” and a digital health engagement solution, while at the same time it seeks to drive digital transformation of the insurance industry, with a focus on life and health insurers. As dacadoo has moved from being a start-up into a high-growth phase, this case series explores which business model(s) will help the company grow to its full potential. In 2010, Peter Ohnemus, a serial entrepreneur who had already built sixteen companies, took some well-deserved time off after the sale of his last successful venture. During this “between ventures” break in Verbier, he noticed his health had improved after two weeks of ski touring, but he could not quantify exactly how much he had progressed. That is when a new idea came to him: How to score human health holistically, encompassing physical health, mental wellbeing and lifestyle. Peter came down from the mountains and started a new company, which led to dacadoo.

Learning Objective

• This case aims to help students understand some common business models used by platform start-up companies in their search for monetization.
• Students are invited to reflect on and discuss how platform business models work, their upsides and limitations, and the appropriateness of one model versus another during various phases of the company’s history.
• The following models are explored over the life of the company: business-to-consumer (B2C), and three business-to-business (B2B) models: project-based, Software as a Service (SaaS) and the broker model.

Keywords

Business Model, Portal, Health, Health Score, Insurance, Digitalization, Digital, Artificial Intelligence, Business to Business, Business to Consumer, Software as a Service, Good Health, Well-being, Sustainability, Strategy, Marketing, General Management

Settings

World/global
dacadoo, Healthcare, Information Technology, Information Technology Services, Finance and Insurance, Insurance
2010-2021

Type

Field Research

Available Languages

English

Related material

Teaching note, Video

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This case study is part of a series

dacadoo (A): Getting started as Quentiq
dacadoo (B): Building momentum
dacadoo (C): Ready for take-off

This case study is part of a series

dacadoo (A): Getting started as Quentiq
dacadoo (B): Building momentum
dacadoo (C): Ready for take-off

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