As part of the third Future Hub programme, insurance technology company Balcia Insurance developed an innovative solution for the automation of transport insurance claims in cooperation with two international startups. Currently, the parties involved in the process are actively working to make the new solution sooner available to all Balcia customers.
In order to support large Baltic enterprises in the development of new business models and existing process optimization, we at Helve host the Future Hub pilot-building program, where corporations and startups co-create to drive change. Within the framework, corporates are partnered up with thoroughly screened and selected European startups. Within Future Hub and under Helve facilitation, more than twenty solutions have already been successfully developed over the past two years.
Marija Ručevska, co-founder of Helve, notes that the cooperation between Balcia and the two selected startups in the third Future Hub program was unique:
“In each of our programs, companies take part with their existing business challenges in order to find a solution for them relatively quickly and efficiently with the support of startups. Initially, Balcia worked separately with each startup, but already at the very beginning of the program, it became clear that in order to achieve the company's goals, it is necessary to combine both startups' efforts and work hand in hand together. It is fantastic to see that thanks to the structure of the program and the support of our mentors, startups were able to adapt, and the co-working process in a very short period of time has brought a solution that can soon be appreciated also by Balcia customers.”
The solution developed as a part of the pilot programme will be integrated into Balcia's transport insurance compensation process, allowing customers to submit a request and receive a decision on compensation within just a few minutes after detecting vehicle damage. With a unique artificial intelligence picture-taking tool from German startup “MotionsCloud”, the extent of damage to the vehicle will be determined by customers uploading an image from the accident site. Whereas a third-party integration system from the Estonian startup “Yaway” will help calculate the precise amount of compensation more quickly and accurately. The new process will soon ensure even faster and more efficient customer service as part of the pilot project when claiming compensation for vehicle damage.
Jānis Lucaus, chairman of the board of Balcia, explaining the motivation for the cooperation with startups, claims that the insurance industry is currently in a transitional phase, where it must be able to adapt to the technological revolution in order to maintain and increase its competitiveness.
“Innovations in insurance came much later than in the banking sector, however, we at Balcia can use this situation as an advantage to learn both from the experience of the banking sector, as well as the mistakes made. Despite the conservative nature of our industry, I believe that companies have two options - wait for startups to create innovative solutions that the industry can further integrate into their daily lives, or take a step further and collaborate while the solution is still being developed. We are grateful for the opportunity to participate in the Future Hub program and to take our transport insurance claims process to the next level together with two international startups.”
Jānis also adds that “for a successful and sustainable cooperation between the parties, it was important to create a working prototype that proves a viable technological solution to the problem.” One of the startup representatives, Lex Tan - head of “Motions Cloud” - positively evaluates the cooperation so far:
“Working together with Balcia and “Yaway” was an easy process thanks to openness and willingness to adapt, everyone was fully committed to ensuring a successful result. By working together, we were able to adapt our processes, technologies and functionality to successfully complete the pilot project and continue our collaboration beyond the program.”