Honeycomb (formerly Agilius), a managing general agent (MGA) for commercial real estate insurance, today announced its North American launch following a $3.3M raise from Phoenix Insurance, New Era Capital Partners, IT-Farm Corporation and NFP Ventures. Honeycomb is the first and only digital insurance platform to change how multi-family property insurance is purchased, underwritten and managed. Honeycomb is disrupting the $22B market, delivering a simple, efficient, and transparent experience for buildings and communities spanning 53M U.S. households.
For condo and homeowner associations (COA/HOA), condo owners and landlords, purchasing this insurance type involves an inefficient and outdated process that can take weeks just to receive a quote. The market is fragmented and lacks transparency and underwriting sophistication, resulting in costly policies and inadequate coverage. Honeycomb’s data-driven AI-based underwriting is the first to provide customized right-priced policies through an intuitive online interface that allows customers to rate-quote-bind in minutes.
“It’s mind-blowing that personal lines have advanced so much, and commercial is stuck in the past,” said Itai Ben-Zaken, co-founder and CEO of Honeycomb. “Insureds purchasing HOA insurance shouldn’t have to deal with manual forms, long underwriting reviews, weeks of waiting, or documents being passed from customer to broker to underwriter and back for every change. That’s where we are changing things. With Honeycomb, there’s no more manual underwriting or lack of quality data points, no more paper forms and no more endless back-and-forth emails. Through our online platform and AI-powered remote inspection application, it’s never been easier or more efficient for COA/HOAs, condo owners and landlords to get quick and fair pricing.”
Honeycomb is partnering with brokers across the U.S., so customers have the option of purchasing insurance through an agent or directly on the website. Online customers receive real-time competitive options after answering a few questions about their property, with each quote fully customizable based on a data-driven “right-pricing” advantage. They can bind the policy immediately and have up to seven days to complete the remote inspection through the Honeycomb app by taking pictures of the building structure and key risk-indicative elements inside the premises.
The proprietary AI “learns” from the user-generated property data to improve pricing accuracy over time. Post-purchase, the app provides ongoing interactive risk mitigation recommendations, as well as a seamless digital claims process. This innovative approach to multi-family property insurance earned Honeycomb (then Agilius) first place at InsurTech NY’s 2020 startup competition out of 200 companies who competed.
“U.S. multi-family property insurance is one of the most wildly inefficient insurance markets,” said Adam Blumencranz, vice president, NFP Ventures. “Complex policies, too small to justify thorough manual underwriting practices, lead to broad-brush risk assessment where many insurers restrict coverage based on region or building age. Honeycomb corrects this with AI-based precision underwriting that offers the simplest way to shop for customized insurance in the market, regardless of building type. The platform’s innovative risk management offerings also allow brokers to have more frequent and meaningful engagement with customers over the lifetime of a policy.”
Honeycomb is now available in Illinois followed by five additional states by the end of 2021. For more information on Honeycomb and its coverage options, visit Honeycombinsurance.com.
About Honeycomb
Honeycomb is a reinsurance-backed MGA providing simple, fair, and affordable multi-family property insurance through its end-to-end digital platform. Honeycomb leverages user-generated proprietary data, advanced AI and computer-vision to automate a manual, inaccurate and costly underwriting process. Honeycomb significantly improves the customer experience and provides tailored coverage at a competitive price point and at improved profit margins through its real-time rate/quote/bind offering and its data-driven “right-pricing” advantage. Honeycomb is funded by top institutional and private investors including Phoenix Insurance, New Era Capital Partners, IT-Farm Corporation and NFP Ventures. For more information on Honeycomb, visit honeycombinsurance.com.
About NFP Ventures
NFP Venture, LLC (NFP Ventures) is a venture fund launched by NFP that focuses on strategic partnerships and investments in the emerging Insurtech, Fintech and Digital Health arenas. NFP Ventures’ mission is to find, fund and work successfully with visionary executives, providing them with expertise to foster long-term success. Typically, NFP Ventures targets companies seeking Seed to Series B investment that can benefit from NFP’s distribution, human capital and other unique assets to accelerate their growth.
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