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At REIN, it’s in the core of our mission to be at the forefront of transformative industries. We came to market with a robust insurtech platform for emerging risks — with our first product focused on solving commercial drone insurance. We’ve spent the last year learning, adapting, and iterating to improve our technology and to be able to apply the same sophisticated solution to more emerging risk categories.
One of these emerging risks categories is commercial transport. The global market for trucks weighing six tons or more is set to balloon to $272 billion by 2025 — with automation, connectivity, and data-based products as the main growth drivers. Our platform was strategically designed to address the challenges around these technological advances, putting REIN in a unique position to bring breakthrough insurtech solutions to this evolving space.
Late last year, Volvo Financial Services, the finance arm of Volvo Group, launched its inaugural accelerator program called iLabX — designed to provide leading global startups and companies with the opportunity to collaborate with VFS to develop and implement new innovative solutions and technologies to drive the next wave of transformation in financial services and commercial transportation.
After a rigorous selection process with 183 applicants, today we’re honored to share that REIN is one of the 7 finalists and the only insurtech company selected to kickoff a 10-week innovation lab at VFS’ headquarters in Greensboro, NC.
With the advent of emerging technologies and rapidly evolving business models and customer behavior, iLabX is designed to address the gaps in transformative and scalable business solutions. Run in collaboration with leading innovation specialist L Marks, the iLabX accelerator program focuses on four innovation categories:
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Building an exceptional customer journey: Solutions that make it easy for customers to access and purchase Volvo Group vehicles, parts and service, and financial services as part of our total offer.
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Financing next generation transport solutions: Platforms and product offerings that allow customers faster and easier vehicle access through ownership or other means, and address new technologies such as automation, electromobility, and connectivity.
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Digital transformation for business excellence: Solutions that provide a level change in business performance through digital transformation.
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Wildcard: Solutions that look at the financial services industry 10-20 years from now, and could re-engineer long held assumptions in terms of business models, sources of capital, credit and risk evaluation, and capital flows.
Scott Rafkin, President of Volvo Financial Services, said, “We were targeting 100 applications at the start of the program, so it was exciting to see almost double the number of companies express interest in iLabX. The program is helping us explore ways to create new solutions and business models for our markets, while giving start-ups access to our company’s global scale in order to help them grow their own businesses. This is an exciting time for everyone involved, and we are looking forward to seeing what can be developed to further innovate, drive speed and business performance.”
Consumer behavior and demands are driving the insurance industry away from purchase and annual renewal to constantly evolving digital insurance products that are available on-demand. In a world that’s dominated by digital ecosystems (like Amazon, Facebook and AirBnb) consumers are looking to purchase goods and services in channels they already transact in, and that includes insurance. This shift in consumption behavior is a monumental departure from traditional insurance models, and presents a huge challenge for insurers. In addition, the rise of hyperconnectivity and big data is increasing demand for pay-per-use and highly data-driven insurance programs that better align with each customer’s unique journey, needs, and risk profiles.
REIN’s insurtech platform was created to solve these product and distribution challenges. REIN’s admission to Volvo’s iLabx program under the “financing the next generation of transport solutions” category is a validation of REIN’s unique ability to tackle these challenges by combining insurance and technology expertise.
REIN provides the toolset for digital ecosystems such as Volvo to open untapped revenue streams by leveraging massive data pools, to build customer-centric insurance products. Meanwhile for insurers, the REIN platform enables them to seamlessly tap into the existing digital ecosystems and access data points that help quantify and better understand risks in constantly evolving markets.
Emerging and/or evolving risks pose an underwriting challenge for insurers due to the lack of traditional loss data. The REIN platform’s ability to analyze unstructured data from multiple sources, enables carriers to migrate from their traditional historical underwriting and actuarial models, to real-time, data-driven models and advanced loss prevention techniques. This is especially true in the commercial transport space, where self-driving vehicles are significantly increasing the amount of unstructured data available and transforming the way risks are incurred and analyzed.
“REIN has been working on a digital insurance platform for the transportation industry,“ said Christopher Dean, CEO at REIN. “We are excited about our selection to the program and for the unique opportunity to work closely with the Volvo Financial Services team.”
The REIN platform in a snapshot
REIN’s insurtech platform unlocks new revenue and product opportunities. REIN connects online ecosystems with carriers by building constantly improving digital insurance products around evolving risks.
REIN’s cloud-based platform empowers insurers and digital ecosystems to:
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accelerate dynamic product creation
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support data-driven underwriting
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deploy and distribute new insurance products
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perform end-to-end straight through processing.
About Volvo Financial Services
Volvo Financial Services offers competitive financial solutions which strengthen long term relationships with Volvo Group customers and dealers. As the number one provider of financial solutions for Volvo Group products, VFS delivers value to customers and builds loyalty to the Volvo Group brands through ease of doing business, speed to market, and knowledge and expertise of the industry. VFS provides customer financing for more than 200,000 vehicles in 48 countries around the world.
About Volvo Group
The Volvo Group is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of trucks, buses, construction equipment and marine and industrial engines. The Group also provides complete solutions for financing and service. The Volvo Group, which employs almost 100,000 people, has production facilities in 18 countries and sells its products in more than 190 markets. In 2017 the Volvo Group sales amounted to about SEK 335 billion (EUR 35 billion). The Volvo Group is a publicly-held company headquartered in Göteborg, Sweden. Volvo shares are listed on Nasdaq Stockholm.
