Oakland, California-based insurance technology company Zesty.ai has announced that it has raised $13 million in funding. This round was led by Luxembourg-based private investment fund Blamar. Plug & Play Ventures and existing investors also participated in the round.
Founded by Kumar Dhuvur (head of product) and Attila Toth (CEO), Zesty.ai utilizes artificial intelligence to Property & Casualty insurance carriers, reinsurers, managing general agents, and insurance technology companies better assess risks. And Zesty.ai has created computer vision technology that leverages satellite and aerial imagery combined with structured data sources for capturing billions of data points on buildings and their surroundings without having to set foot on the premises. Plus Zesty.ai uses machine learning to model multi-peril catastrophic loss events such as hurricanes, floods, and wildfires at the property level.
Zesty.ai’s insurance customers benefit from the service by seeing decreased loss ratios driven by more accurate underwriting, tighter customer and agent relationships through better digital purchasing experiences, and decreased expense ratios due to a lesser need for physical inspections.
“Artificial Intelligence will revolutionize the traditionally data-driven insurance industry and we are thrilled to be at the forefront of this massive change,” said Zesty.ai CEO and co-founder Attila Toth in a statement. “We are immensely thankful to our customers, employees, investors, and partners for enabling us to become a leader in this space!”
The insurance industry was blindsided by the magnitude of losses in the wake of the wildfires in California, which was about $16 billion last year and up to $19 billion to date this year. And insurers currently rely on outdated Fire Hazard Severity Zone maps for assessing wildfire risk, which missed the mark in about 85% of cases during the 2017 wildfire in Santa Rosa, California. So Zesty.ai released a wildfire model that integrates high fidelity property level features about vegetation, topography, building materials, weather patterns, etc.
“We are honored that zesty.ai has chosen Blamar as their capital partner. Our long-term investment philosophy aligns closely with the momentous opportunity in front of the company,” added Blamar CEO Laszlo Bots. “We know Attila and Kumar well and have the utmost confidence in their execution capabilities.”
Zesty.ai will be using the funding to expand its data science, engineering, and customer success teams. And the company will be ingesting additional proprietary data into the platform.
