Metromile goes crypto, Liberty Mutual studying autonomous trucks: Roundup

May 6, 2021 8:40 AM

Usage-based insurtech Metromile says it will now accept Bitcoin for policy payments, and pay claims in the currency, if customers opt for that. The company will purchase $10 million in bitcoin to fund the initiative. “Supporting decentralized finance and adding bitcoin as a new payment option is the next logical step for our digital insurance platform and end-to-end AI claims automation," says CEO Dan Preston. Metromile went public through a merger with the special-purpose acquisition company Insu Acquisition Corp II earlier this year.

Insurify, an insurtech providing an AI-powered comparison platform, has opened an international office in Sofia, Bulgaria. The company's current headquarters are in Cambridge, Mass. The Bulgarian office will be staffed by engineers and data scientists who had previously worked on the travel site Skyscanner, which closed down due to COVID-19 pressures on travel. "Our new office in Bulgaria marks a pivotal growth milestone as we continue to enhance our auto, home and life insurance verticals,” said Snejina Zacharia, CEO of Insurify. “A core focus for the team will be to scale Insurify’s machine learning, personalization and recommendation technology across multiple insurance verticals and channels.”

Insurify is also hiring more in-house agents, led by former Answer Financial executive Shawn Powers. “Insurify is now integrating agents into our virtual process, allowing customers to work with our licensed agents from beginning to end and have an omni-channel choice of interaction,” Powers said. “A customer may start online, have a couple questions, engage with one of our professional agents and then return online to complete their purchase."

TuSimple, self-driving technology company, and Liberty Mutual are partnering to study the safety benefits of autonomous trucks. “This collaboration with TuSimple will advance our ongoing efforts to develop custom insurance solutions for companies operating autonomous vehicle fleets, today and into the future,” says David Blessing, Liberty Mutual's Chief Underwriting Officer for New Mobility. Jim Mullen, Chief Administrative and Legal Officer for TuSimple says, “Given most accidents are caused by distracted, impaired and fatigued driving – factors that are eliminated by autonomous trucks – we expect the data to reveal significant safety advantages when TuSimple's autonomous driving technology is applied."

AmeriLife has added Mark Springett as SVP of enterprise data and analytics. The 25-year industry veteran will lead the execution and management of a comprehensive enterprise data and analytics strategy. Springett will also serve as chair of the enterprise data and analytics governance team and manage and lead operational analytic efforts across the enterprise. Prior to joining AmeriLife, Springett recently served as head of Data Science, Business Intelligence (BI) and Data at Allianz Life, where he built the Enterprise Data Science and BI Center of Excellence, spearheaded the enterprise analytics transformation and developed an overall enterprise data strategy that was optimized for reporting and analytics.

Guidewire Software, longtime provider of insurance core systems, is launching a UBI platform to help insurers get products to market quicker. Available on Guidewire Cloud, packages from partners Cambridge Mobile Telematics and TrueMotion include a variety of capabilities, services, and integrations. “Guidewire’s UBI Solution was informed by our experience with multiple UBI-specific deployments, and unlike other offerings that focus only on product definition, the solution is designed to support the entire quote-to-claim lifecycle,” says Eugene Lee, senior vice president and general manager, Guidewire.