While insurers continue to be bothered by startups like Lemonade, Alan, Clearcover, Pie, and many others who are using technology to rethink how a business can be built to help people and businesses manage risk with some financial security To mitigate, fraud is a problem that has not gone away. Today a startup from France announces funding for AI technology it has built for all insurers, old and new, to detect and prevent.
Shift Technology, which provides insurance companies with a range of AI-powered SaaS tools that can be used to scan and automatically flag fraud scenarios in a range of use cases – including claims fraud, claims automation, underwriting, redress detection and financial crime detection -, has raised $ 220 million, money it will use both to expand in the property and casualty insurance market, the area it is already strong in, and to expand into healthcare and double the growth of its business in the United States USA will use. It also provides fraud detection for the travel insurance industry.
This Series D is directed by Advent International through Advent Tech with the participation of Avenir and others. Accel, Bessemer Venture Partners, General Catalyst and Iris Capital, all of whom were part of the Shift Series C led by Bessemer in 2019, also attended. With this round, Paris and Boston-based Shift Technology has now raised approximately $ 320 million and has confirmed that it is now worth over $ 1 billion.
The company currently has around 100 customers in 25 different countries – including Generali France and Mitsui Sumitomo – and has already analyzed almost two billion claims. This data feeds its machine learning algorithms to improve how they work.
However, the challenge (or I suppose the opportunity) Shift is facing is much greater. The Coalition Against Insurance Fraud, a not-for-profit organization in the United States, estimates that fraudulent claims worth at least $ 80 billion annually are made in the United States alone, but the number is likely to be significantly higher. Ironically, one problem has been the move to more virtualized processes that open the door for malicious actors, exploit loopholes in claims filing, and fumble with information.
Shift isn’t the only one addressing this issue: the global insurance fraud detection market was valued at $ 2.5 billion in 2019 and valued at $ 8 billion by 2024.
Along with others in claims management technology like Brightcore and Guidewire, many of the Insuretech startups are building their own in-house AI-based fraud protection, and it is very likely that other fraud protection measures will increase in services developed out of fintech to protect against financial crime and their way to Finding insurance because the mechanics of how the two work and the compliance issues they both face are very closely aligned.
“The entire Shift team has worked tirelessly to build this company and provide insurers with the technology solutions they need to empower employees to be the best for their policyholders. We are excited to partner with Advent International for their significant industry expertise and global reach, and with this latest investment we are taking another giant step forward, ”said Jeremy Jawish, CEO and Co-Founder of Shift Technology, in a statement. “We have only just scratched the surface of what is possible when AI-based decision automation and optimization is applied to the critical processes that determine the life cycle of insurance policies.”
For its supporters, a key point about Shift is that it helps older vendors provide more tools and services to help them improve their margins and better compete with technology developed by newer players.
“Since its inception in 2014, Shift has made a name for itself in the complex world of insurance,” said Thomas Weisman, Advent Director, in a statement. “Shift’s advanced SaaS range of products helps insurers redesign manual and often time-consuming claims processes in a more secure and automated manner. We are proud to be part of the next wave of growth for this exciting company. “