Risk Management
Nearmap | December 07, 2023
Nearmap, one of the world's largest location intelligence and aerial imagery solutions providers, has signed an agreement to acquire Betterview, a leading property intelligence and risk management platform in the insurance industry.
Founded in Australia in 2007, Nearmap expanded operations into the U.S. in 2014 to help companies better visualize the truth on the ground to make more informed business decisions. Today's announcement marks a significant milestone in the advancement of the Nearmap global growth strategy. This will reinforce the company's position as a leading source of imagery intelligence, data and solutions, and expand and complement its expertise and capabilities for insurance customers and partners.
"The Nearmap acquisition of Betterview is transformative for the industry,"
said Andy Watt, CEO of Nearmap.
Integrating the Betterview platform and AI solutions into the Nearmap technology stack will enable better visualization of the truth on the ground with a richer, more powerful set of AI capabilities that combine the best of both companies. This is a significant milestone in our ongoing efforts to innovate solutions for insurance carriers, and expand our presence within the property and casualty space.
[Source -PR Newswire]
Betterview is an established and trusted source of property intelligence and risk management for the insurance industry, applying artificial intelligence and computer vision to help identify and mitigate property risk, improve and automate underwriting and inspection workflows, and provide a more productive, seamless customer experience.
"Combining the offerings of two best-in-class providers will deliver greater impact for insurers," said Betterview Co-Founder and CEO David Lyman. "The acquisition of Betterview by Nearmap will increase access to premium imagery and cutting-edge, scalable property intelligence solutions for the insurance industry."
"We are optimistic about the outcomes this acquisition will bring to our customers, the potential for developing even greater products together, and the impact it will have on the future of the insurance industry," said Betterview Co-Founder and COO Dave Tobias.
Nearmap and Betterview will harness the power of the leading image intelligence and property risk-management technology solutions — including a historical archive for change analysis, comprehensive post-catastrophe imagery, and AI attributes — to provide customers and partners with greater certainty and clarity, through
More efficient development of insurance solutions and capabilities
Faster and more accurate underwriting, property condition identification, and overall mitigation of risk
Enhanced visualization and interpretation of over 100 AI-powered property attributes
Deeper analytics, with more recency, and regularity through insights easily accessible within a browser, via API or business intelligence tools, or seamlessly integrated with existing underwriting or claims core systems
From imagery to insights to answers, this acquisition aligns with the Nearmap long-term global vision to be the source of truth that shapes our livable world.
Completion of the acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions. The financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed. Jefferies served as exclusive financial advisor to Betterview.
About Nearmap
Nearmap provides easy, instant access to high-resolution aerial imagery, city-scale 3D content, AI data sets, and geospatial tools. Using its own patented camera systems and processing software, Nearmap captures wide-scale urban areas in the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand several times each year, making current content instantly available in the cloud via web app or API integration. Every day, Nearmap helps thousands of users conduct virtual site visits for deep, data-driven insights—enabling informed decisions, streamlined operations, and better financial performance. Founded in Australia in 2007, Nearmap is one of the largest aerial survey companies in the world.
About Betterview
Betterview is the Property Intelligence & Risk Management Solution the insurance industry depends on to identify and mitigate property risk, improve underwriting and inspection efficiency, and build a more transparent customer experience. Applying Artificial Intelligence (AI) and computer vision to aerial imagery and geospatial data, Betterview generates the most accurate property information insurers trust to automate pricing, underwriting, and renewals while focusing strategic action on critical properties, helping transform property insurance from Repair and Replace to Predict and Prevent.
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Insurance Technology
PR Newswire | September 28, 2023
Expert.ai unveiled today its "Enterprise Language Model for Insurance" – ELMI, a cutting-edge innovation in domain trained language models, set to help insurers reach their process automation and digital transformation goals with the highest accuracy. By simplifying and powering the interaction with language data within the expert.ai Platform for Insurance, Insurers can access solutions that scale and take advantage of deep insurance domain expertise combined with the best and most cost-effective attributes of Large Language Models (LLMs) to automate core processes.
Through the expert.ai Platform for Insurance, ELMI supports key capabilities, including:
Generative Summarization: generate accurate summaries, condensing vast amounts of claim or policy information into concise insights, saving time and accelerating straight through processing or human review activities.
Zero Shot Extraction: extract crucial insurance data from structured/unstructured, handwritten/typed, good quality/bad quality sources with accuracy and automatically normalize output formats and add medical annotations such as ICD 9/10 medical codes.
Generative Q&A: answer questions quickly so underwriters and claims handlers can extract meaningful insights from proprietary case files by asking questions using natural language queries.
Walt Mayo, expert.ai CEO, said: "Delivering on our commitment to innovation and higher level of efficiencies in the insurance sector, ELMI sets a new standard for AI-driven language solutions. As part of the expert.ai Platform for Insurance, ELMI equips insurers with the generative AI tools they need to automate the complex landscape of language-driven processes, while also offering substantial cost savings."
Unlike general knowledge large language models, ELMI is:
Trained for Insurance: Eliminating the cost and complexity of training language models, ELMI is engineered with a deep understanding of the insurance domain, providing insurers with generative AI capability ready to tackle underwriting and claims processing challenges.
Built for the real-world: ELMI is integrated into expert.ai end-to-end insurance solutions to meet the practical challenges of AI at scale across insurance workflows from underwriting to claims. Expert.ai purpose-built approach addresses critical shortcomings of general-purpose language models and brings the power of generative AI to improve accuracy and reduce costs.
Cost Optimized: When compared to hosted token-based models, ELMI offers a more cost-effective solution, reducing expenses related to usage, hosting, running, and maintenance, while still delivering superior performance and accuracy.
Secure and Compliant: ELMI is designed to ensure compliance with the most stringent governance standards and does not share sensitive insurance data.
Cloud-agnostic: Offering the flexibility to deploy on any cloud infrastructure or on-premises, ELMI deployments easily meet insurer's varying requirements.
For inquiries, demonstrations, or more information about ELMI, please request a demo.
About expert.ai
Expert.ai is the leading enterprise AI company solving complex language challenges. Our solutions deliver key information for publishers, streamline operations for insurers, drive revelations for pharmaceutical giants, and enhance customer interactions within financial services – all while automating traditional labor-intensive methods. By combining deep domain expertise with the finest attributes of Large Language Models, Machine Learning, and Symbolic AI, we are at the leading edge of linguistic advancements in hybrid AI. With a global presence in Europe and North America, we proudly serve clients that include AXA XL, Zurich Insurance Group, Generali, Sanofi, EBSCO, The Associated Press, Bloomberg INDG, and Dow Jones. For more information, visit https://www.expert.ai/
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Core Insurance
PR Newswire | October 25, 2023
Higginbotham, the largest independent insurance, financial and HR services firm headquartered in Texas and one of the top firms in the country, has joined forces with Bourg Insurance, a long-term family business with deep ties to the South Louisiana community.
As Higginbotham celebrates its 75th anniversary this year, Chairman and CEO Rusty Reid credits careful, strategic growth for the company's long-term success. Under Reid's guidance, the company seeks partners with sterling reputations in their local markets and strong cultural affinities.
At Higginbotham, we place tremendous importance on family — which is how we view our team — and on service to our community, Reid said. If you're looking around for a similar family- and community-oriented business partner, you have to be looking at the Bourg family in South Louisiana.
Bourg Insurance President Brad Bourg, who runs the business alongside his brother Brennan Bourg, brother-in-law Chuck Leblanc — and third brother Bert Bourg, who has long been an important part of the business but is now taking a well-earned retirement — elaborated, "Our father, Claude 'Toby' Bourg, Jr., started this company back in 1958, and our flagship office is still located in our family hometown of Donaldsonville, Louisiana. It's a matter of real pride to us that so many of our clients come from word of mouth, because they know who we are."
"They know we believe in community involvement and that we're service-oriented, which are two things that really work together," Brennan Bourg, who serves as vice president, agreed. "When you're locally conscious and active in your community, you know how to provide the personalized service that your clients deserve."
"Of course, that's what drew us to Higginbotham," said Chuck Leblanc, who also serves as vice president while running the commercial lines department and managing the Donaldsonville office. "It's that family and community culture. We were approached by plenty of other firms, but in the end, we unanimously agreed that Higginbotham was most closely aligned with our way of doing business."
The Bourg brothers — Brad, Brennan and brother-in-law Chuck — also pointed out that they are looking forward to the opportunities the collaboration with Higginbotham will provide to their clients, as well as to their team, who will be eligible to take part in a top-tier employee ownership plan.
"We've been a small business for years," Brad explained. "With Higginbotham, we'll have technology and support to move that forward, providing the same services but on a larger scale."
"Access to markets, scalability, professionalism — and of course, a great brand," Brennan agreed. "Higginbotham brings so much to the table, and we're thrilled to be adding their name alongside ours."
For Higginbotham, the partnership with Bourg Insurance fortifies our existing footprint within Louisiana and provides significant opportunity for continued growth.
"Our company has deep ties in this area, being here as long as we have," Brad explained. "With this alliance, Higginbotham gets a nice footprint throughout South Louisiana."
"And they get us," Chuck concluded. "We're not retiring! Quite the opposite. We're looking forward to the future with Higginbotham, serving our clients just as this business has for the past 65 years."
About Bourg Insurance
Founded in 1958 by Claude 'Toby' Bourg, Jr. and his wife Edith, Bourg Insurance is a personal and commercial property and casualty, life and health insurance agency located in Donaldsonville, Louisiana, with additional offices in Prairieville, Chauvin and Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Now a Higginbotham partner agency, Bourg Insurance is run by Toby and Edith's sons, Brad and Brennan, and son-in-law Chuck Leblanc, as a family- and community-oriented business with a strong emphasis on personal lines and small to middle market companies in the real estate, restaurant and construction sectors, among others. As an agency built on relationships and personal service, Bourg Insurance has won numerous Distinguished Agency awards.
About Higginbotham
Employee owned and customer inspired, Higginbotham is a single source solution for insurance, financial and HR services. The firm was established in 1948 and ranks by revenue as the nation's 21st largest independent insurance firm. Serving thousands of businesses and individuals through locations coast-to-coast, Higginbotham's approach to finding insurance, employee benefit and risk management solutions is more individual and less institutional. By understanding customer priorities, eliminating inefficiencies and committing to transparency, Higginbotham is a place that leads with values so value leads.
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