Swiss Re launches disruptive motor joint venture
Berlin-based MGA to offer white-label products to autonomous vehicle makers.
By Garry Booth, Contributing Editor
Swiss Re and Daimler Insurance Services have joined forces in a venture that aims to help next-generation car makers sell motor and mobility insurance. The new company, an MGA called Movinx, is a 50/50 joint venture whose business model anticipates growth in autonomous cars.
In a statement, Pravina Ladva, Swiss Re’s Digital Transformation Officer, said: “We believe that partnering with Daimler Insurance Services and establishing Movinx will take us to the next level in innovating mobility insurance. Our joint long-term ambition is to unlock an ‘ecosystem interplay’ where insurance supports the introduction of new technologies such as advanced driving assistance systems and autonomous cars as well as new business models in the mobility area.”
Swiss Re says that instead of today’s short-term-oriented partnerships between car manufacturers and various insurers, its focus will be on long-term cooperation to offer flexible and fully digital products. Car manufacturers, or mobility service providers generally, will be able to offer white-labelled solutions globally through Movinx.
In a statement, Ingo Telschow, CEO Daimler Insurance Services, said the deal will establish a new business model as well as co-create and co-own an insurance platform: “This platform enables easy and efficient insurance purchase and customer-centric services by using real-time data. Furthermore, we as Daimler Insurance Services are going deeper into the value chain of insurance business, having more influence on product development and pricing.”
Movinx will partner with locally licensed insurers to deliver its solutions to the end-customers and cover insurance risk. Insurers and other stakeholders can connect to the IT platform and use centralised operations and automated processes supported by a combination of machine- and deep-learning technologies.
Movinx will be located in Berlin and will be led by Sebastiaan Bongers, Head of Mobility Ventures at Swiss Re, and Andreas Roth, Head Digital Insurance Model at Daimler Insurance Services. The first insurance products and services are planned to launch in France in 2021. Further market entries are planned across Europe, in the Americas, and in Asia.
Increased use of self-driving cars promises to shake up the motor insurance market because the new technology could effectively transfer much liability from the human driver to the car manufacturer.
