Business News: American Family, Trov/Waymo Partnership, ClaimVantage

With the purchase of Chicago-based data and analytics software company, Networked Insights, American Family Insurance will accelerate its digital transformation, including its use of data, advanced analytics and artificial intelligence (AI).

The acquisition allows American Family to build on its current advanced analytics capabilities to improve how it serves and meets the needs of customers.

American Family already is investing in AI and related technology across the organization – including through its Data Science and Analytics Lab, its Strategic Data Analytics Division, Innovation team and collaborative data-science projects with UW-Madison.

In addition to its Chicago headquarters, Networked Insights also has operations in New York City and Madison, where American Family is headquartered.

American Family is a Networked Insights client and has been a minority investor in the company since 2013, increasing its investment over time. With the acquisition, American Family became its sole owner. The purchase price is not being disclosed.

Networked Insights will operate as a stand-alone subsidiary of the American Family Insurance enterprise. In addition to serving its customers, Networked Insights employees will collaborate with American Family data scientists on projects using advanced analytic capabilities to improve customer interactions and business value.

All Networked Insights employees, 74 in total, will continue in their positions with the company, including Neely and Gerry Komlofske, president and chief operating officer. Neely will also join the American Family senior executive team.

American Family has also made a smaller acquisition of HomeGauge, a leading home inspection software company with 21 employees, based in Asheville, North Carolina. The aggregate information it provides will enable American Family to enhance its role proactively protecting consumers.

The Networked Insights and HomeGauge acquisitions follow American Family’s conversion from a mutual company to a mutual holding company to retain the concept of policyholder ownership while providing more flexibility to meet customer needs. Policyholders approved the conversion late last year.

Trov, a global On-Demand Insurance technology company, announced a partnership with Waymo, Alphabet’s self-driving technology unit.

Waymo, formerly Google’s Self-Driving Car Project, announced that it would launch a commercial ride-hailing service to members of the public in Phoenix, Arizona in 2018.

Trov will power trip insurance customized for passengers of Waymo’s soon-to-be-launched service. As self-driving cars unleash new forms of shared mobility, the future of transportation will expand beyond personal car ownership, providing opportunities to explore new trip-based insurance models. Waymo has partnered with Trov, a licensed insurance broker, to provide trip-based insurance coverage, underwritten by a non-admitted affiliate of Munich Re. The insurance coverage will include several protections for passengers for the duration of each trip including lost property, trip interruption benefits, and medical expense reimbursement.

ClaimVantage, an international technology provider of claim management software to insurance carriers announced that it has doubled its workforce this year. With 13 new hires in Portland, Maine in 2017, and 11 more hires planned for 2018, ClaimVantage continues to expand its workforce to support its global expansion.

To support this scaling business, a new Chief Operations Officer (COO), Tony Hewitt, has been appointed and a number of key hires have been made; Frances Smyth, an experienced scrum master, Ryan Walsh, a Finance manager, Mark Irvine, a QA manager, and and Karen Dow, an Implementation manager, have all joined the team.

After securing additional funding this year, a ring-fenced R&D team has been established to further innovate the claim management software, leveraging the underlying Salesforce architecture. The focus for 2018 is to improve the user experience using the Lightning interface, and to incorporate Einstein analytics and artificial intelligence capabilities into the claims process.

As well as increasing its workforce in Portland, Maine, ClaimVantage has hired 10 additional employees in Ireland.