Insurtech’s platform takes on agency back-office tasks
COVU, headquartered in California, is supposed to be greater than the digital platforms brokers and brokers more and more use and function to streamline their operations. Safavi payments itself as a brand new mannequin that mixes parts effectively past a expertise platform (corresponding to outsourcing).
“Usually, what the platform is outlined as within the conventional sense in the way in which that you simply’re utilizing it’s as a instrument – software program that an company might begin utilizing, which is cool, however the agent must learn to use it to achieve success,” Safavi mentioned. “In our case, we’re not giving the agent a instrument. We’re managing their guide for them. We’re telling them we’ll do your end-to-end work administration for you, and it’ll assist you develop. It’s going to open up your time so you’ll be able to preserve doing what you need to do.”
COVU launched in its present kind in early 2022, after fine-tuning by Safavi and his co-founders. It has gained traction shortly, leaping from 4 workers in January to greater than 40 presently. The corporate additionally introduced on Aug. 17 that it has secured $10 million in seed funding meant to construct and scale COVU. ManchesterStory Group led the spherical, supported by angel and VC traders from the insurance coverage and expertise industries.
Safavi mentioned the cash is double what the corporate initially sought out. Investor curiosity surpassed expectations.
“We realized there’s a good quantity of demand from traders for this mannequin,” Safavi mentioned.
The funding success is significant, Safavi defined, including he stays centered on the larger image.
“Being an entrepreneur, you might be blissful for a number of days after which again into execution mode and also you’re in search of the following huge milestone,” he famous.
New mannequin
COVU combines a platform with a surrogate that handles back-office work.
The objective of the platform is to assist unbiased insurance coverage brokers and carriers higher handle their threat and make smarter insurance coverage choices by way of AI-driven coverage suggestions in addition to enterprise service and gross sales stories. COVU calls it a “turnkey providing” the place it takes possession of entrance and back-office duties so insurance coverage brokers can focus extra on constructing buyer relationships, rising their enterprise and embracing digital operations.
COVU combines cellular self-service with on-demand service from professionals when wanted, the corporate defined. Brokers offload their back-office and front-office processes utilizing COVU’s expertise infrastructure and system. On the similar time, insurance policies and clients proceed to be recorded on the service below the company, with all buyer communication co-branded with the agent.
The platform can be designed to assist company/dealer clients streamline their wants.
“It’s known as an all-in-one AI-enabled platform as a result of it additionally has our spin to it,” Safavi mentioned. “We expect sooner or later, AI will play a really robust function in offering threat suggestions to clients to assist them navigate their threat administration and insurance coverage administration.”
Associate ‘integration’
COVU refers to companies that tackle its platform as companions, although it additionally views the companions’ clients as their very own.
“We see the top buyer as the one that wants threat administration and safety. The companies are our companions, and we assist them higher handle their clients collectively,” Safavi defined. “As soon as we work with companies, we really take care of the shoppers straight.”
COVU doesn’t combine with its company companions. Somewhat, it strikes every thing it wants into its platform so as to set up and get began.
The gross sales pitch is that companies don’t must spend extra on COVU than what they’re sometimes spending on managing their work.
First comes an exploration or discovery name with COVU’s manufacturing/expertise crew to debate processes, wants, gaps and knowledge switch. The events additionally discover if the company has any employees that may very well be moved over to COVU because it takes over again/entrance workplace capabilities.
That step is to make sure companies aren’t disrupted and to stop any company layoffs as COVU ramps up. COVU hires any affected employees to assist handle the again workplace, Safavi mentioned.
“In the event that they don’t have any service employees, we assign employees to the company, so we assist with filling in all of the gaps,” he defined.
Companies don’t want to fret about API integration. COVU has its personal API integration with different tech distributors, nonetheless.
Companies can depart the association each time they need, and so they nonetheless personal each particular person account. COVU manages every thing else.
“We even have our personal app that’s going to permit the client to do self-service and every thing else,” Safavi mentioned. “As a result of we’re just one platform, we handle every thing. The agent doesn’t have to fret about” the remainder.
At present, COVU has a number of company clients and already manages “tens of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} of premium,” Safavi added.
