In South Africa’s dynamic insurance landscape, innovation has often been born out of frustration with gaps in traditional cover.

Few stories illustrate this better than that of X’S Sure, founded in 2004 by Danny Collins. Today, the company is as one of the country’s longest-standing value-added product (VAP) providers, having shaped an entire segment of the market and inspired a host of followers.

Identifying the gap - The spark for X’S Sure came two decades ago when Collins, then working as a broker administrator in Durban, encountered a client who had diligently followed her insurer’s requirements, installing all the required immobilisers and gear locks, yet still lost her vehicle to theft. To make matters worse, she was forced to cover 10% of the vehicle’s value as an excess, leaving her financially stranded.

“I just thought, how can this be right?” Collins recalls. “Insurance promises to put you back in the position you were in before the loss, but clearly, she wasn’t. That’s when I realised the real issue was excesses. Clients were paying premiums faithfully, but when they needed cover most, they still couldn’t replace what they’d lost.”

From this moment, Collins became determined to create insurance solutions for precisely those areas where standard policies left clients vulnerable.

Proving the model - The early years were not easy. Collins faced scepticism when he first pitched the idea of insuring excesses. Some industry leaders told him outright it would never work. But he backed his conviction. “I thought there was a real market for this in South Africa, so I decided to take a chance. Twenty years later, I can confidently say there was.”

That perseverance paid off. What started as a simple product, covering excesses on underlying policies, expanded into a suite of offerings that today includes tyre insurance, geyser cover, car hire, roadside assistance, and more. Each product emerged from the same principle: identify where traditional insurance stops and step in to close the gap.

Staying relevant in a crowded market - Collins admits that the first decade was particularly tough. Convincing brokers and administrators to add these products was a slow process. But as clients began to experience the benefits firsthand, adoption grew. “It took years to gain traction,” he says. “But once the gates opened, things went very well. Clients realised they were paying relatively small premiums for potentially large payouts, and that’s a compelling value proposition.”

Today, X’S Sure is financially sound, carrying limits of up to R200,000 on excess claims and even R250,000 on other products. But success has also brought competition. “We proved the model, and suddenly hundreds of VAP companies appeared. Many copied our wordings and products outright. It’s frustrating, but it’s the nature of this industry, you can’t protect intellectual property. That’s why we must keep innovating.”