Cast your thoughts again to that scene in Minority Report the place all these autonomous automobiles are whizzing by the town. The extra practically-minded of you could properly have gone: “Yeah, but what about the insurance…?”.
Among the startups constructing the on-demand, related insurance coverage world for the automobiles of tomorrow proper now are UK-based Zego which has raised $201.7 million. Another is Flock.
Emerging from an educational venture to take a look at drones, Flock shifted into offering drones insurance coverage then business automobile insurance coverage. The twist is that it hooks into the telematics of automobiles in order that the automobile solely triggers insurance coverage cowl when it’s really transferring, not when it’s sitting on the lot, incapable of inflicting any accidents.
Flock has now raised $17 million in a Series A funding led by Social Capital, the funding automobile run by Chamath Palihapitiya, finest generally known as a SPAC investor and Chairman of Virgin Galactic. Flock’s present buyers Anthemis and Dig Ventures additionally participated. This spherical brings Flock’s whole funding to $22 million. Justin Saslaw (Social Capital’s Fintech Partner) joins Flock’s Board of Directors as does Ross Mason (Founder of Dig Ventures & MuleSoft).
Ed Leon Klinger, CEO of Flock mentioned: “Transportation is changing faster than ever, but the traditional insurance industry can’t keep up! The proliferation of electric cars, new business models such as ridesharing, and the emergence of autonomous vehicles pose huge challenges that traditional insurers just aren’t equipped for.”
He added: “Modern fleets need an equally modern insurance company that moves as fast as they do. Commercial motor insurance is a $160Bn market, crying out for disruption. The opportunity ahead of us is enormous.”
In an announcement Chamath Palihapitiya, CEO of Social Capital mentioned: “Flock is bridging the gap between today’s insurance industry and tomorrow’s transportation realities. By using real-time data to truly understand vehicle risk, Flock is meeting the demands of our rapidly evolving, hyper-connected world. Flock has the potential to help unlock and enable a truly autonomous world, and even save lives. We’re excited to be a part of their journey.”
Speaking to me over a name, Klinger outlined how the corporate had hit a candy spot by hooking into Telematics APIs for automobiles, or by doing particular integrations with present suppliers and OEMs: “We’ve built our own integrated approach whereby we partner with some and we build bespoke integrations with them. Often they are not as advanced as others. So we’ll either use our integration platform or or we’ll use their approach. We’re highly flexible. The core value proposition at Flock is its flexibility, so we don’t force our own integration approach.”
