InsurTech firm Previsico, a SpinOut company from Loughborough University that specialises in modelling flooding in real-time, has announced its entry into the insurance sector following a successful seed funding round.
The InsurTech specialises in modelling surface water flooding in real-time, and leverages the latest weather predictions to produce property-level flood nowcasts and forecasts.
After the success of its seed funding round, the firm is now targeting re/insurers, brokers, and big data entities that are interested in improving their flood response capabilities.
According to Previsico, the Cabinet Office, the Met Office and Environment Agency have already facilitated successful pilots of the company’s solution, FloodMap Live, in four UK cities.
“At Previsico, we have built a diverse, passionate and highly skilled team with strong business acumen and research expertise. Following our funding, we are now able to bring our expertise and solutions to the insurance sector,” said Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Jonathan Jackson.
The InsurTech is aiming to be the leading global provider of cutting-edge flood prediction. It states that uniquely, its FloodMap Live solution leverages big data to produce round the clock property-level surface water flood risk predictions and analytics.
Adding that this allows it to map the likelihood of both short and long-term surface water events in real-time at individual properties at street level.
“The sector can now benefit from Previsico’s unique FloodMap Live technology, which offers the market the ability to alert policy holders of immediate risks to their properties so they can protect their assets. This de-risks insurance policies especially when insureds agree to putting up flood defences.
“Other ways insurers can benefit include: adjusting policy pricing (or implementing moratoriums) before storms hit; having an accessibility map so that claims teams can know how to reach properties; understanding where flooding has occurred to provide early indication of total loss amounts, reduce fraud and improve claims efficiency,” said Jackson.
Previsico estimates that it could have saved the UK’s insurance industry at least £130 million on 2015/2016 floods.
