Allstate Launches Stand-Alone Telematics Company

Allstate has launched a stand-alone telematics unit to unify the company's several initiatives in the area under a single umbrella.

The unit, called Arity, was briefly mentioned in a Wall Street Journal report as employing 200 data scientists. Allstate currently operates a usage-based initiative, DriveWise; its subsidiaries Esurance and Answer Financial also have telematics-based UBI offerings.

In the company's earnings call this week, CEO Tom Wilson offered greater clarity into the new initiative's mission.

"There are many companies that want to get in this space, and we think we have a natural way in because it’s direct and it’s low friction in terms of giving customers direct benefit from the connection. So it’s our belief that we can use that connection then for multiple purposes such as road usage or providing real-time safety advice, consumer benefits that are determined by a customer’s interest and the time-and-place specific location they’re at," Wilson said in the call, which was transcribed at Seeking Alpha. "So as a result of that, we created Arity as a way of bundling those services together on one platform. So the strategy is strengthen our existing businesses and find new revenue sources by leveraging those connections with customers."

In a Bloomberg interview, Wilson confirmed that Arity would sell some analytics products to third parties.

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