CORE INSURANCE,AUTOMOBILE INSURANCE
LuckyTruck and Great American Insurance Group | December 02, 2022
LuckyTruck, the tech-enabled retail agent focused exclusively on trucking, announced today it has collaborated with Great American Insurance Group (GAIG) to launch a fully digital Motor Truck Cargo (MTC) product.
Over the last decade, the commercial insurance industry, especially trucking insurance, has been slow to adopt digital products. Historically, getting motor truck cargo coverage took a trucker between one to three days. Together, LuckyTruck and Great American Insurance Group will enable truckers to obtain a quote, purchase, and bind a policy in 10 minutes or less.
"We are pleased to be working with Great American, Their financial strength, competitive coverages, and focus on providing a great customer experience through innovation aligns with what we do at LuckyTruck."
-Julie Zimmer, CEO of LuckyTruck
Great American's MTC product is fully digital, eliminating 100+ question applications, back-and-forth phone calls, multiple emails, and manual payment processing. Powered by Ascend's modern payment platform, LuckyTruck allows customers purchasing the GAIG MTC product to pay-in-full or enroll in premium financing instantaneously. After payment, the policy is bound in a matter of microseconds. Instead of sitting on the side of the road waiting days for coverage, truckers can hit the open road in just a few minutes with the coverage they need.
Truckers are often on the road during their insurance agent's typical business hours, and in the fast-paced world of trucking every minute counts, We saw an opportunity to connect with our insureds differently, in a way that better meets their needs. Our digital (MTC) product is smart, fast, easy-to-use, and accessible around the clock via the LuckyTruck platform,said Travis Murphy, Assistant Vice President of Business Development, Great American Property & Inland Marine.
LuckyTruck is looking forward to building its relationship with Great American and advancing their shared goal of creating a digital-first approach in the trucking industry.
About LuckyTruck
Launched in 2019, LuckyTruck is a modern insurance platform for commercial trucking. It is the first all-in-one retail platform exclusively focused on the trucking insurance market.
About Great American Insurance Group
Great American Insurance Group's roots go back to 1872 with the founding of its flagship company, Great American Insurance Company. Based in Cincinnati, Ohio, the operations of Great American Insurance Group are engaged primarily in property and casualty insurance, focusing on specialized commercial products for businesses. Great American Insurance Company has received an "A" (Excellent) or higher rating from the A.M. Best Company for more than 110 years (most recent rating evaluation of "A+" (Superior) affirmed December 3, 2021). The members of Great American Insurance Group are subsidiaries of American Financial Group, Inc. (AFG), also based in Cincinnati, Ohio. AFG's common stock is listed and traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol AFG. Policies are underwritten by Great American Insurance Company, Great American Assurance Company, Great American Alliance Insurance Company and Great American Insurance Company of New York, authorized insurers in all 50 states and the DC.
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INSURANCE TECHNOLOGY
Socotra | October 28, 2022
Socotra, the modern core platform provider for innovative insurers, today announced that KOBA Insurance, an insurtech MGA pioneering usage-based insurance products in Australia, is migrating its insurance program onto the Socotra policy core platform.
Currently, KOBA is one of the first insurers to offer pay-per-kilometer personal auto insurance in Australia. Since launching nationwide last November, KOBA is rapidly evolving the car insurance narrative; growing 50% month-on-month, helping Aussies pay-per-KM for over 1,000,000KM across Australia and more importantly, providing a connection between a driver and insurer like never before. Traditional insurance only covers expenses to get you back on the road. But that is not enough. KOBA believes that modern car companies and smart insurers of the future will be about making you safer, helping you avoid accidents, and focus on building a true car-care relationship.
With a data-driven focus, KOBA is nimble and is innovating distribution and product solutions for niche markets. In June 2022, KOBA also launched a car share product in partnership with Uber-owned Car Next Door. KOBA plans to expand its portfolio to include other usage-based insurance products for boats, fleets, rideshare vehicles and motorcycles.
Socotra gives KOBA a platform for international scalability and the ability to introduce new products and innovations quickly as KOBA evolves its distribution model. Socotra also provides cloud-native capabilities and the flexibility to plug in multiple raters, claims systems and a single platform to launch any insurance product for any geography or distribution channel.
“KOBA is empowering mid-sized carriers to activate and scale innovative insurance products—from day one, By partnering with Socotra, we are laying down a rock-solid technological foundation to rapidly launch multiple usage-based insurance products, flexibly white-label them for mid-sized carriers, and scale our insurance-as-a-service platform internationally.”
-Andrew Wong, founder and CEO of KOBA
Usage-based insurance (UBI) is auto coverage that uses data collected from the driver’s vehicle and analyzed by the insurer to determine policy cost. The better the driver, the better the discount.
KOBA’s Insurance as a Service Platform provides carriers access to their line of white-label products on a subscription basis.
Mid-sized insurance carriers have been reluctant to launch usage-based insurance products because such offerings require them to redesign not only their technology platforms, but also their processes and organization structures. But KOBA will enable mid-sized carriers around the world to sell white-labeled versions of its innovative and tech-driven products, without having to spend the time, money and effort to create these products themselves. KOBA will provide insurance-as-a-service with its out-of-the-box pricing models, raters and go-to-market strategies.
KOBA, which designs products for value-driven customers, was the winner of the Excellence in Insurtech award at the seventh annual FinTech Australia Finnie Awards in 2022. It won Mozo Expert Choice Awards’ “Car Insurance Best New Product 2022” and “Excellent Value Car Insurance 2022,” as well as “Best Insurtech Innovation 2022” by Australia’s Finder Awards. It was also recognized, alongside Socotra, as one of the 10 leading insurtech companies in Australia by Insurance Business Australia.
I applaud the team at KOBA for their vision of accelerating innovation for mid-sized carriers, KOBA understands that data is central to better assessing risk and giving customers the types of experiences they have with other technology services daily. With Socotra, they’re creating usage-based insurance products that deliver immense value and cost savings for their customers,said Dan Woods, founder and CEO, Socotra.
About Socotra
Socotra brings unparalleled speed and ease to insurance technology. With Socotra’s modern core platform, global insurers and insurtech MGAs can accelerate product development, reduce maintenance costs and improve customer experiences. Socotra provides open APIs, a product-agnostic data model and out-of-the-box capabilities to manage the entire policy lifecycle, making insurance innovation faster, easier and more affordable.
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CORE INSURANCE, LIFE INSURANCE
Vouch Insurance | October 13, 2022
Vouch, a commercial insurance business focused on tech companies, announced its expansion into the life science category with the introduction of new proprietary insurance solutions.
For decades, life science startups have struggled to acquire business insurance. Large insurance carriers typically do not insure early stage life science companies, especially those that are pre-revenue. When they do, minimum premiums are prohibitively expensive.
George Aliaga, Vouch's Health & Life Sciences Vertical Lead, sees tremendous opportunity to support this category during a technological inflection point, as life science startups digitize their business models and increase investment in artificial intelligence to accelerate R&D cycles.
"We believe the most innovative medical advancements are happening right now in incubators around the country, and these startups need help protecting their business in a constantly evolving risk environment, For example, artificial intelligence techniques are being used for drug discovery, disease diagnosis and patient risk identification. AI use in life sciences is rapidly maturing, and groundbreaking startups are emerging with innovative tech as a result."
-Aliaga
Vouch is the insurance of the technology industry. Since 2018, Vouch has revolutionized the buying experience and quality of coverage available to tech companies with the introduction of 10 proprietary coverages and a specialty brokerage. Now, the company is offering the same expertise and proprietary capabilities to the underserved life science startup ecosystem.
Life science startups face unique risks. Vouch offers a suite of exposure-driven coverages to ensure comprehensive protection from R&D through product commercialization:
Change in Controlled Environment Coverage - For perishable property prone to spoilage
Vivarium Coverage - For animals used in R&D, breeding or biological product harvesting
Clinical Trials Coverage - When sponsoring or operating human clinical trials
Medical Malpractice Coverage - When offering medical treatment or advice that may create medical malpractice exposure
Specialized Contamination Coverage - For products susceptible to contamination by radiation, bacteria, mildew, mold, microorganisms, viruses or pathogens
Condemnation of Undamaged Stock Insurance - For situations where product is not damaged but is deemed compromised and condemned by the FDA
In addition to the new proprietary coverages launched today, Vouch also offers life science startups access to its specialty brokerage, which can procure additional policies from the broader insurance market to provide comprehensive and holistic insurance solutions.
While insurance provides necessary protection, coupling an insurance program with expert advisory best positions a startup to withstand future risk.
Since they operate in a fast-paced environment with complex and unique risk profiles, life science startups not only require specialized coverage, but an advisor who understands their needs, Our life science Insurance advisors are trained to provide expert guidance for startups through each of their stages and milestones,said Aliaga.
About Vouch Insurance
Vouch is a provider of business insurance to thousands of high-growth companies. Since its inception in 2018, the company has empowered its clients to get risk management right through niche expertise, a proprietary approach to pricing and underwriting, fast, digital-first procurement and coverages that scale as the company grows.
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