Roundup: Hippo doubles underwriting capacity; Corvus acquires Wingman

Published August 12, 2021 7:15 AM

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Updated August 12, 2021 7:15 AM

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Assaf Wand, chief executive officer of Hippo, left and Stewart Ellis, chief financial officer of Hippo, right, stand beside a ceremonial bell during the company's initial public offering at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, U.S., on Aug. 3, 2021. Hippo Enterprises Inc., which was founded in 2015 and sells products in 37 states, has focused for years on selling home insurance to individuals, and recently built out a home-maintenance platform helped by the acquisition of Sheltr in 2019. — Assaf Wand, chief executive officer of Hippo, left and Stewart Ellis, chief financial officer of Hippo, right, stand beside a ceremonial bell during the company's initial public offering at the New York Stock Exchange in New York on Aug. 3, 2021.

The following news stories were curated and condensed by the Digital Insurance team.

Hippo doubles underwriting capacity with carrier partnership

Hippo, the home insurance group that recently went public, announced a new relationship with Ally Financial’s subsidiary Motors Insurance Corp. The deal doubles Hippo’s insurance underwriting capacity. "By working with Ally, we are bringing significant growth and diversification to our business, offering Hippo’s protective insurance products to more homeowners across the country," said Rick McCathron, president at Hippo, in a press release. “Our innovative and proactive approach aligns perfectly with Ally's customer-centric mission to serve the needs of the customer and help protect people's financial future, which includes their most valuable financial asset: the home. We're thrilled to be working with such a prestigious financial institution and are excited to have their support as we build the home insurance company of the future.”

One appoints new chief executive officer

One Inc., a digital payments platform for the insurance industry, announced Ian Drysdale as the chief executive officer, effective Aug. 5. Drysdale will take over for Christopher Ewing, who co-founded the company and will move into a new role as chief strategy officer. Drysdale brings over 25 years of experience in the payments industry. “Ian has deep payments and operational expertise and has optimized organizations and platforms to capitalize on the growth and changes in electronic payments,” Ewing said, in a press release statement. “I look forward to developing a strategic vision for the future with Ian and the team as we continue to scale the business and drive innovation in the insurance industry.” One has a team of 475 employees that serves nearly 200 clients and processes more than $18 billion in annual payments. In early 2020, Great Hill Partners acquired One Inc and provided growth capital to support One’s product expansion and go-to-market strategy.

Chubb acquires StreamLabs

Chubb, a property and casualty insurance company, acquired StreamLabs, maker of Internet of Things enabled water monitoring and leak detection products. “The evolution of insurance from a model of ‘repair and replace’ to ‘predict and prevent’ is changing the relationship between insurers and their customers,” said Sean Ringsted, executive vice president of Chubb Group and chief digital officer and chief risk officer, in a press release. “The addition of StreamLabs – its technology, people, patents, products and potential – will meaningfully expand the breadth of IoT devices and capabilities that Chubb can deliver to our consumer and commercial clients.”
The acquisition builds on Chubb’s strategy to offer risk engineering services to its consumer and commercial clients, according to the release. The financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Corvus acquires Wingman

Corvus Insurance, a commercial insurance provider, has acquired Wingman Insurance, a firm that provides insurance products for tech and cyber sector companies. Wingsure will continue to be an independent brand. “The addition of Wingman into the Corvus fold represents a key milestone in the growth of our company,” said Phil Edmundson, founder and CEO of Corvus Insurance, in a statement. “By expanding our footprint in the small and midsize business market and creating the ability to white label our solutions as we further explore multiple product lines, this addition creates new opportunities for Corvus as we launch an acquisition strategy and continue organic growth.”

Economical Insurance selects Shift Technology for fraud detection

Shift Technology, artificial intelligence and optimization SaaS solutions for the insurance industry, will be deployed by Economical Insurance, a property and casualty insurer in Canada. The insurer will use the technology to better spot potentially fraudulent claims. "Effective, efficient fraud detection is critically important to so many aspects of an insurer's business. When you have greater assurance that a claim is legitimate, it opens the door to so many other opportunities," said Dan Donovan, head of customer success at Shift Technology, in a statement. "Economical is able to retire a highly manual process, which we believe should enable quicker determination of the nature of its claims and settling them with confidence, all leading to a more exceptional customer experience for policyholders."

Cameron Mutual partners with Betterview

Cameron Mutual Insurance Company is partnering with insurtech Betterview, which helps property and casualty insurance carriers manage risk, to streamline its property underwriting process. Cameron Mutual Insurance Company, which offers personal, farm and commercial insurance in Missouri, Arkansas and Iowa, will use Betterview’s Remote Property Intelligence Platform to minimize on-the-ground inspection teams. “Writing property insurance in the Midwest has become more challenging given the volatility associated with heightened spring and summer storm activity,” said Jody Klostermann, vice president of Underwriting at Cameron Mutual, in a statement. “Using Betterview’s platform we can quickly identify potential property and casualty exposures that may not be readily apparent from the ground level. The early detection and management of these adverse risk characteristics is a win for the insured, the agent, and Cameron.”

Openly selects Majesco; Majesco also launches ClaimVantage

Openly, an insurtech focused on home insurance, selected Majesco Billing for property and casualty insurance on Majesco CloudInsurer, a scalable platform that allows companies to rapidly adapt to the market and customers, for its technology. Openly customers will have greater flexibility than their current annual billing options. “As we continue to expand our business, we remain committed to providing customers with next-gen capabilities that align with our standards of simple and transparent solutions,” said Matt Wielbut, co-founder and chief technology officer at Openly, in a statement. “Majesco Billing for P&C on Majesco CloudInsurer supports our aggressive growth strategy and delivers a state-of-the-art SaaS platform that is easy to use, flexible and keeps us on the leading edge which our customers demand.” Majesco also announced the launch of its ClaimVantage Connect portal for ClaimVantage customers to create, update and view claim information.

Super launches In the Clear program

Super, an insurtech that provides subscription services for the home, launched In the Clear, a program to help real estate agents and homebuyers during the buying process. The program uses pre-sale inspection reports to ensure that claims filed with Super will not be denied because of unknown pre-existing conditions. “In the home warranty industry, it’s all too common for an unknown issue that existed before the close of a home but was unknown to the buyer to be used as a reason to deny a breakdown claim. This catches many new homeowners off guard, leaving them understandably frustrated. We want to change that,” said Jorey Ramer, CEO of Super, in a statement. “In our commitment to making caring for a home carefree, In the Clear allows us to be transparent with home buyers, starting with the moment a pre-sale inspection is complete and put them in a better position to receive complete and dependable coverage from their policy.”

CoreLogic to collaborate with One Concern on weather prediction technology

CoreLogic, a global property data and solutions provider, will collaborate with One Concern, a solutions provider, for three years. One Concern’s resilience solutions and disaster-risk reduction technologies will be able to better predict and address weather hazards and climate threats with CoreLogic’s flood, storm surge, wind and climate change data, and flood and wind vulnerability models. “Amidst worsening natural hazards, enterprises must build resilience strategies for an environment where black swan events are considered normal. As the world looks to face increasing climate risk, we believe ESG should have an ‘R’ for Resilience in order to address these evolving new hazards,” said Ahmad Wani, CEO and co-founder of One Concern, in a statement. “Through this partnership with CoreLogic, we will be able to make disasters less disastrous by uncovering climate-risk blind spots, enabling communities to address the ripple effects of adverse climate events. CoreLogic’s data will give us a major advancement for data modeling to build the resilience-as-a-service category while setting the stage for enterprises to operate at the nexus of resilience and sustainability. With unparalleled precision and granularity, we can now identify and plan for resilient enterprises to be sustainable, while also reducing their vulnerabilities from extreme weather caused by climate change.”

Moody’s to acquire Risk Management Solutions

Moody’s Corporation, a global integrated risk assessment firm, has entered a definitive agreement to acquire Risk Management Solutions, a provider of climate and natural risk modeling and analytics, for around $2 billion. Moody’s acquisition will allow its insurance data and analytics business to increase to nearly $500 million in revenue and accelerate its global integrated risk capabilities. "Today’s leaders face a complex, interlinked world of risks and stakeholders,” said Rob Fauber, president and chief executive officer of Moody’s, in a statement. “In the context of a global pandemic, the climate crisis and increasing cyberattacks, our customers must manage a wider range of risks than ever before. We are excited to add RMS and its team of world-class data scientists, modelers and software engineers to the Moody’s family to help accelerate solutions that enable customers to build resilience and make better decisions."

Verisk’s Benchmark new API

Verisk, a data and risk assessment firm, released a new application programming interface for Benchmark, the company’s weather analysis solution. The new API allows claims and underwriting teams to integrate location-specific weather peril data into internal claims and policy systems. “By harnessing this API, insurers can provide everyone across their organization — from underwriters to adjusters — with a single, easily-accessed data source to view the weather data they need to serve their customers,” said Rich Della Rocca, president of claims at Verisk, in a statement. “This new, enhanced service allows for greater consistency and more efficient underwriting and claims processes.”