Seven Years, One Team: Inside the Hepster–Stefanini Partnership

Combining two names is a familiar internet tradition. Celebrity couples have made portmanteaus part of popular culture. But it’s much rarer for two technology companies to create a shared nickname. Not because of romance, but because their teams work so closely and so well together.

For hepster and Stefanini, that nickname is “hepstanini.”

A technology partner that is genuinely part of the team brings technical expertise, but they also understand the business, anticipate challenges, and contribute to decisions as true collaborators. That level of integration creates continuity, trust, and a shared sense of ownership that is rare in client–provider relationships.

hepster and Stefanini have built this rare collaboration through the different phases of hepster’s growth, adapting as the company’s needs have changed.

Seven Years of Technology Partnership

hepster is a German insurtech and embedded insurance provider headquartered in Rostock. Their innovative, fully API-driven, modular MGA model enables B2B partners to embed tailored insurance products seamlessly into almost any ecommerce journey. hepster was founded in 2016, and Stefanini has been its technology partner for seven of the past 10 years.

THE CHALLENGE

Stefanini provides hepster with application software development through a dedicated team of nine developers. The team builds, maintains, and continuously evolves hepster’s digital solutions. Recently, hepster needed to replace an external application with a more advanced internal solution featuring additional capabilities and a future-oriented architecture.

THE APPROACH

With a tight delivery timeline, hepster and Stefanini brought the right people together and accelerated development. The project’s scale and impact demonstrated the value of their partnership. Reflecting on the project, Katja Fröhlich, hepster’s IT & Digital Project Director, explained, “We always join forces…but that was really, get everyone at the table, see how we can get this done as quickly as possible”. She continued, “And this is exactly what happened. It was so big and the impact so great that we’re really happy that we could do this.”

THE RESULTS

Strategic alignment: Stefanini has supported hepster in establishing a clear strategic direction for the next 2–3 years, providing confidence in key decisions and acting as a trusted strategic partner.

Innovation & efficiency: Through the partnership, hepster is embracing new technologies, including AI, to optimize processes, increase efficiency, and support future business growth. The collaboration enables Hepster to turn technological opportunities into tangible business impact.

Voice from the partnership

Over their seven years of partnership, Stefanini’s people have become fully integrated into hepster’s operations, functioning as an extension of the internal team.

“We used to call ourselves the ‘hepstanini’ team,” recalls Fröhlich, “I like that because it reflects how well we work together.”

Why it matters

hepster values long-term collaboration, particularly when it comes to technology. The company believes technology works best when teams understand both the business and the product. External providers may deliver technically strong solutions, but without business context, those solutions can miss the mark and fail to support long-term goals.

Balancing AI Adoption with Practical Integration

hepster is focused on adopting AI at the pace of development but without reactively pursuing every new capability. hepster relies on Stefanini to help identify ways to integrate AI into the daily work of its development, architecture, and data teams. Stefanini’s broader experience helps shape how AI is applied, accelerating collaboration and delivery for hepster.

More Than a Name

“hepstanini” is more than a fun nickname. It captures what Stefanini brings to its client relationships: trust, shared context, and a commitment to growth. Stefanini’s teams work closely with our clients, understand their business and products, and help shape solutions that support their changing needs. This creates the continuity needed to respond quickly, build for the future, and keep technology aligned with business goals.

After seven years, Stefanini’s team is embedded in hepster’s day-to-day work and continues to support its technology, products, and growth.