Insurtech Zego has sold more than 100 million hours’ worth of flexible policies, with over 80% of this total coming in the last 12 months.
Zego currently insures a third of the UK’s food delivery market, largely through partnerships with Deliveroo, Just Eat and Uber Eats. By surpassing 100 million hours of policies, it has insured the equivalent of 267 million pizza deliveries, half a billion e-scooter rides or 137,000 months of on-demand car subscriptions.
Zego was founded in 2016 to provide flexible insurance for the gig economy and has since expanded its B2B offering to cater to new mobility services, such as ride hailing, ride sharing and car rental. These services continue to grow in popularity with the number of ride-sharing platform users expected to reach over 11 million by 2020, helping to fuel Zego’s growth.
Zego offers a range of policies from minute-by-minute and hour-by-hour insurance to annual cover, providing far more flexibility than traditional insurers, with pricing based on usage data from vehicles. It also covers van and taxi fleets and has already built adaptable insurance models for several innovative car-leasing businesses including Splend, WeFlex and Drover, as well as e-scooter start-up Dott to insure its fleet across France and Belgium.
Zego recently raised $42 million in one of the largest funding rounds for a European insurtech startup to fuel its international expansion and double its workforce to 150, in order to capitalise on the growing new mobility market.
Sten Saar, CEO and co-founder of Zego, said: “Hitting 100 million hours of policies sold is a major milestone for Zego and we expect this figure to significantly grow as we continue to expand rapidly across Europe.
“At Zego, we have recognised a gap in the insurance market and built a unique business model to fill it. Our digital-first approach to insurance places us at the forefront of new mobility services, and we look forward to forming new partnerships in the space.”
Insurance Edge Comment;
As the High Street declines and fewer people want to eat out in the evening, for a variety of reasons, companies like Zego are the future of commercial insurance. Who really wants to pay for fully comp insurance, that covers third parties, PI to the rider/driver, or things like public liability, when you are actually parked overnight – not working.
Insurance needs to be like a tap; turn it on when needed, turn firmly off to save money – via smartphone app too.
The same flexible, on-demand, PAYG cover revolution needs to happen across the van insurance market, and tradespersons cover, over the next few years. Change is coming, whether the big players in these particular niche markets like it or not.
Pretty ageist company though. Not allowing over 65 year olds to work
Agreed, given that state pension age is 67 now in UK, and likely to be 70 in a few years, it would appear the insurance industry must assess the individual risk as regards driving/riding for work. Simply choosing age limit cut-off points hasn’t really worked in the travel insurance sector, so there is progress to be made via technology that can download driver data in real time, plus geo-location and any medical history that is willing to be shared – that way insurers can calculate risk more effectively at the point of quote. – Ed.