With commercial real estate going through challenging times, property owners are looking for efficiencies wherever they can find them. Now a new breed of insurtech companies is coming to market, offering faster and more simplified ways to approach necessary elements, such as insurance.
Flyreel, an AI solution for residential and commercial property insurance, recently announced the closing of a $10 million Series A financing. The company now serves 15 major insurance providers and has raised $18 million to-date to support customers using its proprietary AI assistant and computer vision technology to improve property underwriting, risk management, and claims outcomes.Â
The company’s series A financing was led by IA Capital Group, an independent investment firm with a two-decade track record of success in partnering with high-growth companies in Insurtech and Fintech, and a leading manager of strategic venture capital programs for the insurance industry. The round also featured participation from leading insurance software provider, Guidewire Software, and existing investors including Gradient Ventures, an AI-focused venture fund owned by Google as well as State Auto Labs and Donan Engineering.
“We’re excited about the opportunity to partner with Flyreel in building the leading AI property intelligence, data, and insights platform for the insurance industry and beyond. says Matt Perlman, Partner at IA Capital Group. We believe the industry is ripe for a transition to remote, real-time, customer-directed underwriting, and claims solutions. We view Flyreel as a new paradigm for understanding risk and engaging with the customer both pre-and post-policy,”
Flyreel equips property insurance providers with comprehensive, ground-level interior and exterior property data to improve underwriting and claims outcomes across their book of business. The company does this by distributing its Property AI Assistant to policyholders to guide them through contact-free and fully-automated self-inspections at their convenience, through Flyreel’s mobile app experience.
As policyholders scan their property with their smartphone camera, Flyreel’s proprietary technology automatically documents important details such as property features, risks, hazards, materials, and other key data to improve underwriting and claims processes. The result is a sped-up process for gaining insurance, based on an automated, processed understanding of the individual property.
“We continue to make investments and partner with companies across the P&C landscape that offer innovative solutions for our customer base,” says Mike Chen, Vice President of Corporate Development, Guidewire Software. “Through their self-service AI platform, Flyreel enables carriers to facilitate property inspection at scale and identify risks across their book of business that would otherwise require costly professional inspections. We have been very impressed by the results Flyreel has achieved with our mutual customers and are excited to help enhance those results as a partner.”
Flyreel will use the funds from the Series A financing to continue serving its growing list of customers while expanding its product line and platform features to deliver further integration and automation across the insurance value chain.
“The insurance market and consumer expectations are shifting dramatically in the wake of current events and technical innovation. Customers expect consumer-grade product experiences coupled with financial products and services that protect and support them in ways that broad risk pooling, zip-code underwriting, and other assumptive strategies of the past cannot,” says Flyreel’s Founder and CEO Cole Winans. “We’re grateful for the vote of confidence our investors and customers have placed in our business. Our team is excited to be so well-equipped as we remain steadfast in our focus on supporting our customers as they deploy the best of today’s technology to improve underwriting and claims outcomes for themselves and their policyholders.”
Overall, Insurtech is heating up, with many large venture funds and investor conferences focusing on the category. From November 17-19, Queen City Fintech and RevTech Labs hosted the Venture 135 Conference, which specifically featured innovators in the space. It was attended by over 100 Corporate and Strategic Venture Capital Funds, and significantly more entrepreneurs, all from outside the valley, showing the strength and reach of a sector that’s ripe for disruption. With a large group of deep-pocketed investors focused on insurtech, this should serve as the first of many announcements demonstrating advancement in insurance.
