Insurance agents spend hours completing paperwork and getting customer information over the phone. InsurGrid, a new startup in the seed stage, has developed a software solution that simplifies the process and makes it easier for agents to serve existing customers – and secure new customers.
InsurGrid offers agents a personalized platform for collecting information from customers, such as: B. Date of birth, driver’s license information and policy statement. This platform helps agents avoid long calls or manage back-to-back emails, and instead gives them a place to understand how all of their different customers are doing. It starts with damage and accident management.
The startup is integrated into 85 insurance carriers and serves as a software layer instead of the provider. Via the InsurGrid platform, insurers can request customers to upload information and register as policyholders within seconds. This essentially becomes a living Rolodex that allows insurers to access information on the account and offer deals at a faster rate.
Image Credit: InsurGrid
Better service offers a financial advantage. Eden Insurance, a customer of InsurGrid, said people who submitted information through the platform converted at an 82% higher rate than those who didn’t. Jeremy Eden, the agency owner of Eden Insurance, said he could show consumers that his plan was $ 300 cheaper than the current tariff.
At the heart of InsurGrid is a bet by the founding team that senior insurance agents are going nowhere. Co-Founder / CEO Chase Beach noted that the bulk of the US $ 684 billion annual property and casualty insurance premium is distributed by approximately 800,000 agents working through 16,000 brokers. So far, InsurGrid has worked with more than 150 of these agencies.
When asked if InsurGrid ever had plans to offer its own insurance, much like insurtech giants Hippo, Lemonade and Root, Beach said it was currently working solely on innovations around the sales process. He said those big companies that either recently went public or are planning to go public still rely on agents to succeed.
“Instead of replacing the insurance agent, what if we gave them the same level of technology as a hippopotamus or a large transportation company,” Beach said. “And offer them the digital experiences so that they can compete in 2021.”
Over time, he sees that insurance agents take on the same role as financial advisors or real estate agents: “Very much involved in the process because they are these experts.”
Other startups that have popped up in this space include Gabi, Trellis, and Canopy Connect. The differentiator, the team says, is that Beach hails from a 144-year-old insurance heir that gives him vital insights into how to successfully and effectively sell to agents. It starts selling, but expects InsurGrid to expand to other parts of the insurance process as well.
To help them compete with startups new and old, InsurGrid recently raised $ 1.3 million in pre-seed funding to meet its goal of being the “underdog for the underdog,” Beach said. Investors include Engineering Capital, Hustle Fund, Vess Capital, Sahil Lavingia and Trevor Kienzle.