CMT was launched in 2010 as an outgrowth of MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab. Today, the company’s DriveWell telematics and behavioral analytics platform is used by over 30 insurers including State Farm and Liberty Mutual in 20 countries.
CMT currently generates revenue in three ways. The primary source is telematics service revenue. The raw sensor data is converted to a paid telematics data feed for insurers, who pay on a per-user per-month basis. Pricing depends on the set of services chosen. The second source is the IoT device, and the third is smaller revenues associated with white labeling and special projects.
Discovery in South Africa is one user of CMT. According to their 2018 results booklet, Discovery Insure has seen a 7.1% absolute reduction in loss ratio over the past 24 months, and drivers have 60% lower road fatalities than South African drivers.
Discovery hasn’t had trouble enticing users to sign up by offering fuel cash back cards. Over the past seven years, the program has provided close to $40M in fuel spend back. While the Discovery Insure mobile app has risen to as high as #18 in the Maps & Navigation section of the Google Play Store in South Africa, it also sports a 2.7-star rating given user complaints of battery drainage and inconsistent scoring.
In an earlier analysis, we looked at insurers that have mentioned telematics on earnings calls and the vendors they were partnering with. CMT came up several times.
Looking ahead, CMT says it’s focused on five areas: 1/ expanding its telematics-based policies 2/ using telematics to improve claims processing and accident reconstruction 3/ video analytics 4/ emerging mobility scenarios and 5/ positioning itself in the area of autonomous vehicle testing and scoring.
Gig economy gone wrong
Last week, The Wall Street Journal published a story highlighting how two leading economists recently walked back their conclusions on a landmark 2015 study on the gig economy’s ultimate impact on traditional work arrangements. Estimates were overblown because 1/ a lot of gig-economy activity was odd jobs that people took up to make ends meet and 2/ surveys used to measure alternative work arrangements were flawed. Per the WSJ:
We’ll be digging more into how the gig economy’s size impacts freelancer-focused startups. Recent small acquisitions in the space include The Hartford’s acquisition of sharing economy MGU Y-Risk and Kingsbridge Group’s acquisition of Dinghy, a seed-funded startup focused on insuring creative freelancers in the UK.
Which (re)insurers are striking strategic partnerships?
We parsed our data collected on strategic partnerships struck by (re)insurers and found that there have been more than 180 partnerships since the start of 2017. See who participated in the most here.
Platform plays in Asia
We’ve seen more moves in Asia of leading internet platforms setting their sights on insurance distribution. Here they are:
