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Has talked to many insurtech investors Lately, I find myself thinking about usage-based insurance (UBI, not to mention general basic income in this case). On a superficial level, this approach makes a lot of sense: Why, for example, should motorists pay the same premium regardless of how many kilometers they’ve driven? But segregation of users also raises all sorts of questions about what is fair and where UBI is headed next. – Anna
Stop paying others?
“There was a lot of noise around UBI […] in the past few years. It’s supposed to be the next big thing, but it hasn’t really worked out yet.” New alpha asset manager combine Clarisse Lam told TechCrunch.
AV8 VC‘s partner Amir Kabir concurs with Lam, noting the struggles between startups and legacy insurance providers: “The startups that initially operated the UBI space have had a hard time generating new ones. meaningful moat,” he said. Meanwhile, he added, “incumbents have been active in the UBI space for decades and have yet to see massive adoption.”
Coincidentally, or perhaps not, one of the insurtechs hardest hit by the stock market sell-off is Metromile, which is listed on the stock exchange in 2021 and is seeing its value. more than 85% off before acquired by a former startup Lemonade. Metromile’s focus is on pay-per-mileage auto insurance, a self-explanatory concept in which motorists will be charged less if they drive less.
