French home insurtech Luko scoops £45.5M Series B funding led by EQT Ventures
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Luko is an insurance company that provides a device that focuses on home security and helps reduces electricity bills. It features an AI-powered sensor designed for monitoring and preventing home accidents. Luko aims to move insurance from a claims-based model to prevention with its proprietary technology.
Luko is a B-Corp certified company. In their business model, the company charges users a flat fee – which is used to cover claims management, reimbursement, and operational costs. This helps in the company to price effectively.
Luko is in fact developing a proprietary home protection technology, so it can reinvent homecare and move insurance from a post-incident, claims-based model, to avoiding home accidents to begin with. The technology will monitor a home’s front door, water supply pipe and electric meter, and machine learning will analyse this data to help prevent floods, fires and burglary. The company was founded in 2016 and headquartered in Paris, France.
Hamburg-based Claimsforce secures €7 million to expand its InsureTech claims platform
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Claimsforce is a SaaS-based technology platform that uses AI and machine learning to provide insurers and third-party administrators with an end-to-end claims management platform that is more time-efficient, price accurate, and customer-focused than legacy claims systems. In an industry where first and second-generation legacy technology can often mean outdated and cumbersome claims processing, Claimsforce uses AI-based regulation control and increased data points to assess the damage, analyze the claim, and settle quickly. The platform improves the overall efficiency of claims settlements, lowers claims costs, and tracks customer satisfaction through NPS(Net Promoter Score) audits.
Claimsforce seeks to create a very sophisticated claims management platform combining AI and machine learning, supplemented by an increasing number of data points, to change the way that claims are both managed and settled. Insurers and their third party associates will be able to use Claimsforce to give more accurate claims pricing estimates, be able to settle claims faster and more efficiently, and over time, use AI to create more predictive models. All of this will make for a more streamlined and frictionless user experience for an insurer’s customers, which is key for insurers as they look to shake up the traditional way of doing things.
Lemonade reaches $4bn unicorn valuation with $300mn funding round from SoftBank
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Lemonade operates as a full-stack insurance company powered by AI and behavioral economics and driven by social good. It is a licensed insurance carrier, offering homeowners and renters insurance. Lemonade replaces brokers and bureaucracy with bots and machine learning, delivering zero paperwork and instant everything. The company uses artificial intelligence and behavioral economics to set rates for the homes and renters it insures. Lemonade was founded in 2015 and is headquartered in New York, NY, United States.
Dallas-Based Life Insurance Startup Bestow Lands $70 Million Series C
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Bestow is an insurance technology company offering a platform that makes life insurance accessible to families. It builds products and technologies that expand the market and reimagines life insurance distribution. Bestow’s proprietary, entirely digital life insurance platform will help propel growth into new insurtech, carrier, and partner channels. The approach that the company uses enables busy families to seek and purchase affordable policy rights from their mobile device in a matter of minutes. In addition to its direct-to-consumer arm, Bestow provides APIs that enable partners to offer life insurance coverage to their customers with ease.
Bestow offers term life insurance plans that are valid for a specific period of time. Term life insurance, as opposed to whole or permanent life insurance, is the type often recommended by financial experts. Term life covers the policyholder for only the pre-determined period of time, and then expires after, say, 30 years, when the policyholder might no longer have dependents. Because the value expires, term life insurance is much cheaper than whole life insurance, and the rate and payout are fixed: You’ll pay the same amount every month throughout the entire policy, and your death benefit won’t change over time.
It’s standard when getting life insurance to undergo a medical check-up, but with Bestow, there are no medical visits required. Instead, the company asks you about your health and lifestyle and uses predictive models to get information about your health and wellness. It also provides customer support, advice from licensed life insurance agents, and the ability to cancel your plan at any time.
London-based BIMA nabs $30M more for micro-health and life insurance aimed at emerging markets
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BIMA business model is based on the partnership between mobile carriers and insurance companies, essentially covering the gap between these two providers to deliver life, health and accident insurance policies via mobile phone. Benefits for all: mobile service providers strengthen their customer relationships and insurance increases their customer base in hard-to-access markets, while the company offers collaboration in product development and distribution through its own network of trained local agents: in the reference markets for BIMA, creating the “culture” on the importance of insurance is essential and human contact is invaluable in this respect. Seizing the opportunity presented by the boom in mobile phone usage in emerging markets, BIMA’s innovative technology and distribution strategy enables low-income consumers to access simple, affordable financial services, sustainably and at scale. The firm has more than 1000 local employees, who take time to educate each customer about insurance services, and is a partnership between specialist emerging markets companies Kinnevik and LeapFrog Investments, and the international telecommunications and media firm Millicom.
Insurtech startup Novidea raises $15 million in series B round
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The startup uses innovative data-driven solution that allows agents and brokers, insurers, carriers, and MGAs(Managing General Agent) globally to manage the entire policy lifecycle across all lines of business, using data to inform every business decision, cross-sell and up-sell. Novidea’s cloud-based platform makes it possible for insurance professionals to work from any device, the company said. The company’s AI-based analytics tools will generate data-driven insights that enable you to drive new business leads and increase customer retention. This means you can provide a more personalised experience at every stage of the insurance distribution lifecycle, from policy coverage recommendations to risk management advice, tailored to individual customer needs.
Novidea makes provision for modular plug-ins to add additional functionality as needed. It also has world-class security and compliance across international markets. With a single insurance distribution platform, Novidea delivers a 360 degree business view, unprecedented insight, and a powerful competitive advantage by helping make more timely, better-informed decisions that will open new doors of opportunity.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3875873,00.html
Next Insurance Attracts $250M in New Financing; Its $631M to Date Beats Lemonade
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Next Insurance is an online-based insurance company for entrepreneurs and small businesses. Next Insurance is transforming small business insurance with simple, digital and affordable coverage tailored to the self-employed. Next Insurance offers policies that are easy to buy in 10 minutes or less and provides 24/7 access to services such as Live Certificates of Insurance, Additional Insured, and more, with no extra fees. Revolutionizing a historically complicated insurance industry, Next Insurance utilizes AI and machine learning to simplify the purchasing process and drive down costs by up to 30% compared to traditional policies. Next has received a total of $631 million in venture capital funding and has been recognized by Forbes Fintech 50, JMP Securities InsurTech 50 and Forbes Best StartUp Employers. The company’s services feature claims investigation as soon as possible, with decision being made within 48 hours that helps its clients to get transparency. They use technology to eliminate agents and other expensive extras and give prices that are incredibly affordable. It also offers policies to a range of small businesses from general contractors to personal trainers. Its coverage includes General liability insurance, Business Insurance, Professional Liability insurance, Commercial auto insurance, Tools & Equipment insurance, Errors & Omissions insurance, Workers compensation insurance among others. Next Insurance was founded in 2016 and is headquartered in Palo Alto, California
Bdeo raises €5m in a Series A funding round led by BlackFin
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Bdeo helps insurance companies to go through the digital transformation by offering what it calls a “visual intelligence” platform. The startup digitises the processes of purchasing an insurance policy and registering a claim with a video calling technology that allows collecting all the documents and evidence necessary. Its platform enhances the customer journey beginning with underwriting and all the way through the time the claim is processed, also recognizing risks, damage, and providing assessments in real-time, allowing insurance companies to detect fraud or pay customers in the event a claim is approved. With a combination of some of the most innovative technologies on the market, specifically artificial intelligence, Bdeo digitises the interaction between insurance companies and policyholders, offering a comprehensive solution that spans from automatic policy subscription to the digitalisation of claims management through automatic damage detection. Bdeo is one of the few companies today whose solutions, based on deep learning algorithms, offer real application in the market. Bdeo has been recognized by Fintech Global as one of the leading 100 companies in the InsurTech space for the second consecutive year. The company was founded in 2017 and is headquartered in Madrid, Spain. The list of the startup’s clients includes Mutua Madrileña and Zurich in Spain, Fidelidade in Portugal, and BBVA Bancomer in Mexico.
https://talent4boards.com/bdeo-raises-5m-in-a-series-a-funding-round-led-by-blackfin/
UK startup battleface Inc. announced a $12-million Series A
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Battleface Inc., is a rapidly growing tech-enabled insurance startup focused on providing innovative insurance products for travelers worldwide. They offer extensive experience in emergency travel, medical and claims management. Using established networks, credible partners and a 24/7 tech-based infrastructure, they provide a range of services including Medical Assistance , Security Assistance, Travel Assistance, Claims Services and Plan Administrative Assistance
They have designed an API-enabled Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system for policy distribution, enrollment, fulfillment, product underwriting, claims management and emergency assistance case handling.
https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/international/2020/12/11/593659.htm
Getsafe, the European digital-first insurance startup, scores $30M Series B
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Getsafe, an insurance provider designed to offer insurance products in all lines of business including property, health and life, recently launched a digital contents insurance product in the UK market and has established itself as an insurance model which allows customers to learn about, buy and manage insurance on their smartphone in just a few clicks. The Getsafe app is available to customers 24/7 and 365 days a year, allowing them to file claims or change their coverage in real-time.