Insurance technology startup Ominimo raises €10M in funding – News

Ominimo Insurance, a startup that uses artificial intelligence to provide auto insurance plans, has raised €10 million in funding from Zurich Insurance Group Ltd.

News reported the investment today. The publication cited sources as saying that Zurich Insurance, Switzerland’s largest insurance provider, took a 5% stake in Ominimo as part of the deal. The cash infusion values the one-year-old startup at €200 million, or about $220 million.

Poland-based Ominimo provides auto insurance plans that it describes as more affordable than offerings from established insurers. The company uses AI to automatically generate quotes, which speeds up the sign-up process. Ominimo says that its algorithms can produce an offer within a minute of a prospective customer filing an application.

The company’s application form includes five questions, which further speeds up the sign-up process by reducing data entry. Established insurers require users to answer up to dozens of questions in some cases. According to News, Ominimo augments the information that customers include in their sign-up forms with dozens of data points from other sources.

Ominimo can reportedly use a license plate number to access “100 different variables” about the associated vehicle. That includes the car’s length, height, width and weight. Ominimo co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Dusan Komar told News that the company’s data shows “strong correlation” between the length of a car and accident frequency.

Some traditional insurers only evaluate five to six key data points when determining how to price an insurance plan. According to Ominimo, the fact that its AI takes a larger amount of data into account allows it to more precisely tailor premiums, which can translate into lower pricing.

The company is promising rates up to 30% lower than the average plan price in Hungary, the sole market where it currently operates. Ominimo claims to have won a 7% share of the local market in one year by selling 300,000 policies. The company offers two products: mandatory car insurance and so-called CASCO insurance, which covers vehicle damage incurred as a result of accidents, theft and natural hazards.

Ominimo will use its new funding to expand into more than 10 additional markets starting with Poland, Sweden and the Netherlands. The company also plans to grow its product portfolio by adding property insurance plans. It will partner with Zurich Insurer, the insurer that led its funding round, on the initiative. 

The collaboration will involve DA Direkt, a unit of the Swiss firm that provides insurance plans in Germany. Zurich Insurance will underwrite Ominimo’s policies in the new markets where it plans to establish a presence. Ominimo, in turn, will operate as a managing general agent for the insurer. This means it can not only sell policies to customers but also carry out certain related tasks such as processing claims. 

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