It’s been a super busy 2023 for fast growing insurance data intelligence provider, Percayso Inform. After completing a £2.7m fundraising round, led by industry veteran, Neil Utley, alongside Praetura Ventures, IE wanted to catch up with Neil and Percayso MD, Rich Tomlinson.
IE; Percayso is supplying data insights for up to around 65 clients now, and so this new funding will enable more expansion for the company Rich?
RT; It will, actually I believe we are now at about 70 clients and since the integration of the Cazana data brand, now operating as Percayso Vehicle Intelligence, we have seen stronger demand for our car market segment insights. It’s also great to have someone like Neil on board, with his industry experience, although he’s still on probation of course!
NU; Delighted to be so! As many people in the insurance industry know, cars and motorcycles are two big passions of mine so helping a company deliver greater insights to insurers is really exciting.
IE; Neil what attracted you to Percayso in particular?
NU; It was a great opportunity to invest in terms of timing, as well as the niche itself. Percayso Inform is very different from lots of other data companies. It doesn’t have legacy issues and the car insurance market has moved on from my time at Hastings. There is so much more data out there now, from different sources, which can give you a much more personal insight into the customer, their lifestyle and so on.
The market is also evolving from the aggregator domination that’s really defined it since the late 1990s. Car insurance now is on a different level from the days when an NCB, postcode and an occupation determined prices. Things are far more detailed and nuanced and risk profiles are built up by deeper data insights.
IE; One of the benefits of online quotes rather than call centres is that you can see a trail of Q&As in quote engine histories. That can really make a difference when matched with the sort of data that Percayso already has?
NU; Yes aggregator or comparison sites can show a history of quote changes in say, occupation, postcode, NCD, mileage per year and so on. Sometimes that’s just because the policyholder’s life has changed, moved house or whatever, but you have a dataset there which can be cross-referenced.
RT; One of the things Percayso can do is match that fresh quote info to third party data sources and see where there might be any differences. So if individual circumstances have changed, then you check that new address, does it have a driveway or on-street parking etc.
NU; On the Cloud there’s no legacy, so Percayso can customise and adapt to the client’s needs. That’s a real advantage for us. Instead of saying to the client, “here’s the data we think you need for quotes or renewals,” we can be far more agile and tailor something more bespoke. Not everyone in the car insurance market is targeting the mainstream, there are so many niches like caravans, motorcycles, classics and so on.
IE; What new trends are you both seeing in the car insurance market, as claims costs rise alongside general inflation?
RT; The switch from petrol/diesel to hybrids and EVs is creating demands for things like service, factory recall data, MoT advisories, or general owner or leaseholder care.
The electric car battery pack needs careful charging to extend its lifespan and other service or fault fixing data can be fed into an overall risk profile. What insurers want is careful owners, private or fleet, who look after high value vehicles, it’s an important trend that will develop as more data from within the car can be accessed in the future.
NU; There will be more emphasis on the vehicle history itself in the future, especially as insurers move towards greener fleets within their policy books. The other thing that’s interesting is the crossover of data from car insurance into Home, Pet, Travel or things like vehicle finance. If car ownership is gradually replaced by PCP or other finance, then there are good reasons to match up those two data streams.
IE; Will Percayso be looking to expand beyond the UK soon, or into other sectors like car finance?
RT; At present we have a sort of coalition of partners overseas, many of whom are in different niches within the insurance market. When the time is right we may well look at opportunities overseas but we know how we want to grow; respond to client demand for useful data. That’s really what it’s all about.
IE; Exciting times ahead, thank you Neil and Rich for your time.
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