Auto Insurance is growing fast in emerging markets as people get their first car. Telematics can create a more personalised risk premium. Claims processing is in transformation as auto body shops and consumers form into networks through maps and mobile phones.  Meanwhile consensus is emerging that greater adoption of driver automation and augmentation will dramatically reduce insurance for the good news reason that it will dramatically reduce accidents and the sharing economy is reducing the number of people whop buy cars (as opposed to simply using cars as needed). 

We found 21 ventures going after Auto Insurtech and put them into 4 categories – Claims Process, Comparison & Robo Brokers, Just in Time Insurance  and Telematics

Telematics

We start with the biggest category – Telematics – with 13 out of 21 ventures. The basic premise is that sensors in your car will record how safely you drive and how much you drive and this will enable a more personalised risk premium calculation. How much resistance we see from consumers on the privacy front remains to be seen – personally the trade off seems worthwhile. Think of this as Internet of Things in your car or Fitbit for your car.

Just in time and the sharing economy.

I am always intrigued when I find a category of one. We define Cuvva as Just in Time Auto Insurance and reviewed it here. As the Sharing Economy continues to expand, we expect to see more Insurance like this. Living in a country with great public transport, I don’t bother owning a car and use rentals (both new and old model) and taxis/Uber as needed. So the idea of owning a car and buying auto insurance is already more in my past than my future. I like the experience of driving, but ownership is a hassle.

Networked Claims Process

In ye olden days of Traditional Insurtech, claims process meant enterprise business process and workflow to make internal processes more streamlined. Modern Emergent Insurtech puts the consumer and the vendor (eg the auto body shop you need after a fender bender) in a three way network through maps and mobile phones. It was fun to see Claim Di emerging from Bangkok; anybody who has experienced Bangkok traffic knows this city is  fender bender heaven. These ventures offer the ability to radically reduce claims processing costs and democratising the process (opening it up and making it transparent). We envisage these becoming infrastructure services used by consumer facing InsurtTech ventures via Open APIs.

Auto Focussed Comparison & Robo Brokers

We have already reviewed the comparison sites and robo broker services. These usually cover many types of insurance as well as other financial products. We also found a number that appear to be laser focussed on Auto Insurance.

America Leads the way

We counted 13 of the 21 ventures from America, 4 from Europe, 3 from Asia and 1 from Latin America. However this is not a Silicon Valley dominated market space, we found ventures from Southern California and 6 other states.

The 21 Ventures

Venture Category

AccuScore Telematics

DriveWay Telematics

Metromile Telematics

Octo Telematics Telematics

RootInsurance Telematics

TheFloow Telematics

TrueMotion Telematics

Wunelli Telematics

OkChexian Telematics

Acculitx Telematics

DriveSpotter Telematics

Telematic Telematics

Citymile Telematics

Goji Robo Broker

Cuvva Just In Time

CoverHound Comparison

Insurify Comparison

RenewBuy Comparison

TheZebra Comparison

ClaimDi Claims Process

SnapSheet Claims Process

Please tell us in comments of any that we have missed or if we have allocated any of the above in the wrong way or if you have any insights into this market.