Allianz partners with Jaguar; Wilton Re data breach: Insurtech news

July 10, 2023 1:30 PM

An employee polishes paint on the bodywork of a Range Rover sports utility vehicle (SUV) in the paint shop at Tata Motors Ltd.'s Jaguar Land Rover vehicle manufacturing plant in Solihull, UK, on Friday, Jan. 20, 2023. Tata Motors are due to report their latest results on Wednesday. Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg — An employee polishes paint on the bodywork of a Range Rover sports utility vehicle in the paint shop at Tata Motors Ltd.'s Jaguar Land Rover vehicle manufacturing plant in Solihull, UK on Jan. 20, 2023.

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Jaguar Land Rover and Allianz Partners announced a collaboration to introduce an embedded insurance program aimed at improving the buying process for clients in Europe who purchase Range Rover, Defender, Discovery and Jaguar vehicles.

The program, called Simply Drive, provides immediate insurance coverage for the first month of ownership. The insurance offering will be gradually introduced in eight European markets, revolutionizing the luxury buying experience for JLR's clients. The Simply Drive service, enabled by Simplesurance technology, was launched in Germany and will be progressively expanded to Austria, Belgium, France, Italy, Portugal and Spain over the coming year, integrating insurance seamlessly into the vehicle purchasing process for customers.

Jean-Marc Pailhol, Member of the Board and Head of Global Strategic Partnerships at Allianz Partners said, "This program marks the beginning of a long-term partnership with JLR to deliver superior digital and innovative solutions and peace of mind to clients. We are proud that JLR appointed us as partner of choice for supporting their Reimagine strategy and by making car insurance a 'by default' component and seamless experience in their client car purchasing journey."

Norwalk, Connecticut-based Wilton Re experienced a data breach on May 29 and 30 affecting about 1.5 million people, according to the Maine Attorney General's office. The office said 2,092 of these were residents of the state. The breach was discovered June 7 and the office will send written notifications to affected Maine residents on July 16.

The Maine Attorney General's office reported other aspects of the breach, stating that Social Security numbers were obtained through hacking a file transfer tool, MOVEit Transfer, operated by PBI Research Services, a third-party service provider. Michael Bahar, partner at the Eversheds Sutherland law firm, reported the breach. He could not be reached for comment.

HSB extended its partnership with Cyberwrite to continue leveraging its cyber insurance underwriting and portfolio management services. HSB has been using Cyberwrite since 2018 to analyze real-time cyber risk to understand the impact of potential cyber incidents.

Tim Zeilman, HSB's VP and global product owner for cyber said in a statement: "The strength and reach of Cyberwrite's platform helps us keep up with emerging exposures in this rapidly evolving cyber threat landscape."

Chewy expanded its CarePlus pet insurance across the U.S. to 45 states, with more coming. Coverage providers include Lemonade Pet and Trupanion.

Mita Malhotra, president of Chewy Health, said in a statement: "We know our customers want to select from high-quality and cost-effective options that include the most seamless experience for everything from researching and buying to receiving claims payments. Our new CarePlus plans provide additional options while maintaining the same gold standard experience pet parents expect from Chewy, from wherever they are located."

Insurity has partnered with GeoX to offer geospatial property data and first floor elevation data to improve risk assessment and classification for P&C insurers. Through the partnership, Insurity customers can automatically extract 3D objects from GeoX's AI technology and aerial imagery data to create accurate risk models.

Insurity customers also receive access to commercial or residential property data to remotely assess property characteristics. "Through this partnership with GeoX, Insurity seeks to provide our customers with a powerful tool to navigate the complexities of a changing risk landscape," said Kirstin Marr, Chief Analytics Officer at Insurity, in a news release. "With our combined expertise and solutions, we will offer accurate and unique property data, enabling carriers to create more precise risk models, adjust pricing effectively and streamline their underwriting process."

Digital risk processing platform Cytora announced a partnership with Hyperexponential, a pricing decision intelligence company, to facilitate "supersonic underwriting" for commercial insurance. Together, the companies will streamline a more informed view of risks, and base pricing on real-time data. Under the partnership, Cytora's platform will reduce the time underwriters need to decide risks and issue quotes, from hours to just minutes. Cytora will evaluate decision-ready risks against appetite and priority scores, then send those risks to Hyperexponential's hx Renew platform, which will price those risks.

"This partnership with a like-minded team at Cytora paves the way for the speed and efficiency which we have always believed is at the heart of successful modern insurance businesses," said Richard Gunn, chief revenue officer, Hyperexponential.

Juan de Castro, chief operating officer, Cytora, said, "This allows insurers to operationalize at the flip of a switch Hyperexponential's data within their underwriting workflows, driving superior evaluation and quotation of a risk."

Tokio Marine Holdings has launched a market intelligence platform to more readily share information when searching for potential insurtech business partners. Tokio Marine collaborated with Tällt Ventures, maker of the Sønr database of more than 2 million companies, to build the platform. Previously, Tokio Marine group companies had unknowingly engaged with the same startup companies independently. The new platform leverages Tokio Marine's Global Digital Innovation Labs to facilitate corporate searches and horizontal development of collaboration, according to a company statement.