Zego buys telematics firm

Motor insurance provider, Zego said that the deal will enable it to collect real-time data about driver behaviour and signals its intent to use data to “revolutionise commercial motor insurance”.

The deal follows Zego gaining a Gibratarian insurance licence and its partnership with Bravo Group which gives access to its proposition to 700 Broker Network and Compass members.

Testing
According to a statement from Zego, Portugal-based Drivit has been a long-term partner to Zego, and was selected over many of its competitors after rigorous market research, analysis and testing. It was also selected by Zego months after the company initially rolled out and tested telematics-based policies in the market.

The Drivit team will now be fully incorporated into Zego, and its market-leading technology is already embedded into the Zego Sense app - an app-based telematics solution launched by Zego recently.

Zego suggested that incorporating Drivit technology would allow it to develop how commercial motor is priced.

Integration
It detailed: “While most insurers traditionally price based on factors such as age and vehicle type, and while others may use telematics-based driver behaviour data too, Zego is able to price policies based on traditional factors, driver behaviour, and working habits data - the latter gleaned from its continuing integrations with work providers.

“Overall, the information Zego can collect amounts to five times more data per vehicle than its competitors. By acquiring Drivit’s telematics technology, and by linking this up with its existing data sources, Zego has made a significant play in understanding driver data and risk better than anyone else globally.”

Zego is also set to use this acquisition as a springboard to scale and expand into new products, markets, and territories.

Commercial motor
Sten Saar, CEO and co-founder of Zego, said: “At Zego, we want to revolutionise the way that commercial motor insurance is priced, and I believe that this acquisition is an important step towards achieving this goal. Owning a market-leading telematics solution gives us the ability to not only collect real-time behavioural data, but also crucially to layer this information on top of our other existing data sources.

“A data-centric approach is key to Zego’s strategy going forward and the acquisition of a pioneering telematics company like Drivit will help us to lay the foundation for future innovation and disruption in the industry.”

Gonçalo Farinha, co-founder of Drivit, added: “Drivit was created to untangle the constraints of existing telematics technologies, helping car insurers to develop a new breadth of products and services that use driving behaviour and contextual data to cater to the specific needs of each driver.

“We are embarking on this journey with Zego not only because its mission perfectly aligns with the role we envisioned for Drivit in the world, but also because it is uniquely positioned to dramatically accelerate this shared vision into becoming a reality.”

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