Igniting change, OneSpark at a time

OneSpark’s founders and joint chief executives, Greg Smith and Josh Kaplan, have been named in Beyond Exclamation magazine’s “Top 10 Most Inspiring CEOs to Watch Out” for in 2022.

This is the duo’s second international honour in one year, with the company in existence for only two years. OneSpark won the title of the World’s Most Innovative Company in Life Insurance in 2021.

It’s not surprising that their motivation is, as Kaplan puts it, “to change the world”. Responding to the Beyond Exclamation award, he said, “To be recognised provides further motivation to continue our mission to innovate for the betterment of our clients and the pursuit of a better world.”

Launched in 2020, OneSpark is a tech-based, socially responsible insurer, which builds products that aim to change people’s lives, save people money, and make the world a better place. Its name comes from the idea that it just takes one individual, the spark of an idea to change the world.

“We launched it in, arguably, one of the most difficult times to do so,” Kaplan told the SA Jewish Report. “Over the past 24 months, we have faced multiple once-in-a-century events, from a global pandemic to riots and unrest. In spite of these challenges, our team has done an enormous amount of work not only to make OneSpark a success, but to help make South Africa a better country.”

Smith and Kaplan met around 2016 when they worked at Discovery. “We’re complete disrupters,” says Smith. “We do things differently and think differently. We aren’t scared to go against the grain and do things right.”

Smith says their winning recipe “has everything to do with our people, our culture. I’m in awe every day of the incredible talent that sits within OneSpark, how brilliant every single person is. To have amassed such a strong team with a common vision and goal humbles me every day.”

They attended King David High School Linksfield at the same time, with Kaplan being two grades below Smith. They both loved their time at the school.

“Given a choice, if I had to go back and do it all over again, I wouldn’t hesitate to go back to King David,” says Kaplan. “This passion for my school extended into my working life, where I have had the privilege to do some work for the King David Schools Foundation.”

Smith had many mentors in academics and sport at King David. “Each of them played their part in helping me to be the best version of myself, to go out into the world and be able to study actuarial science, work at Discovery, and then be in a position to start my own company.”

Kaplan describes the key factors that motivated him and Smith to start OneSpark.

First, their frustration with the life insurance industry meant they wanted to “put clients and their best interests at the heart of our products and everything we do”.

Second, their realisation that life insurance, as a product, hadn’t evolved in more than a century meant they had to “throw away everything that was done before and start again”.

Lastly, “We wanted to use cutting edge technology and actuarial innovation to design products that not only give better protection at a more affordable premium, but also uplift and empower our clients and society at large, improving lives.”

They have designed dozens of award-winning insurance products such as an education-protection product and one of Africa’s first and largest social-impact bonds. The former was crowned as the World’s Most Innovative Life Insurance Product in 2018, while the latter was designed to help solve the #FeesMustFall crisis.

“We have one of the world’s smartest underwriting models in which a lot of our clients don’t need to go for medicals,” says Smith. “[We have] the world’s first pay-as-you-need life insurance model, so it’s transparent. We take a percentage of the premium to run the business. We hold the premiums in kind of a fund, and then pay out to our clients. We treat the money as if it’s their money, not ours.”

Kaplan believes their goal to help change South Africa aligns closely with the mission of OneSpark’s brand ambassadors, Springbok Captain Siya Kolisi and Proteas bowler Lungi Ngidi. “We met their managers,” says Kaplan. “Both Siya and Lungi are incredibly proud and passionate South Africans.”

Smith, too, loves South Africa, so the civil unrest in 2021 broke his heart. However, it sparked an idea. “We called in our executive, and challenged it to do something bigger,” says Smith. “We ended up raising hundreds of thousands of rands. We fed more than 30 000 people. We rebuilt tuck shops in schools and internet cafes.”

This is one of Smith’s most memorable moments. “When everyone else sits down, we stand up. We are a voice that won’t be silenced. We’ll do our utmost to make change, and will use OneSpark as something bigger than ourselves to make that change.”

Summiting Mount Kilimanjaro in 2019 is a moment that stands out for Kaplan. “I love all things adventure and adrenaline inducing, so Kilimanjaro and a few other mountains have always been on my bucket list,” he says.

While climbing Africa’s highest peak, Kaplan endured blizzards, storms, and rain, which, he says, “made the trip quite difficult, especially when you can’t see more than a metre in front of you. That being said, I loved every second. In a sense, because you’re completely cut off from the rest of the world, it feels like a few days of deep meditation where all you have are your own thoughts to keep you company. This gave me some time for deep introspection, and helped catalyse my thoughts about starting OneSpark.”