With artificial intelligence for fraud detection attacks the start-up from Paris in the insurance market. Investors are putting millions into expansion – even to Germany.
The French-American start-up Shift Technology has collected the equivalent of around 53 million euros from investors. The fresh capital from the Series C round of financing comes from early stage investor Bessemer Venture Partners and legacy investors Accel, General Catalyst and Iris Capital, the company announced yesterday. According to their own information, a total of around 88.3 million euros flowed to the 2014 founded start-up headquartered in Paris.
Shift is working on a software that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to examine damage claims in insurance companies. The million-dollar financing should help to open up the global insurance market – with the expansion the start-up puts its focus on the USA and Japan. New jobs will be created in Boston and Tokyo for data scientists, developers and sales staff. In Europe, the company is already represented in Zurich, London and Madrid with a total of 200 employees. This year, a location in Germany should also be added.
The software developed by Shift scours insurance claims for abnormalities that may indicate fraud. For example, the algorithm filters out suspicious messages by looking for patterns in the information or identifying links between applicants. Shift finally awards an assessment for the claim received, which claims to be correct in three out of four cases. For insurers, it is about large sums: fraudsters cause each year an economic loss in the amount of four to five billion euros, an evaluation of the Gesamtverband der Deutschen Versicherungswirtschaft (GDV) has shown.
AI should reduce errors
The Paris start-up wants to remedy this situation by fully automating the processes in the event of a claim. Insurance companies should be able to work faster and improve their customer service. Jeremy Jawish, Managing Director and co-founder of Shift, says in a press release, “Our AI technology helps leading insurance companies achieve greater efficiency and accuracy. “We firmly believe that KI can help with claims handling in many areas.” The startup’s 70 clients include, among others, AXA Spain, Credit Agricole Pacifica and Liberty Mutual.
Investors stress the importance of the technology to the sustainability of the industry: “The digital transformation is in full swing in the insurance industry and Shift will help clients to master it,” said Charles Birnbaum, Partner at Bessemer Venture Partners, according to the press release.
Software vendors and online platforms in the insurance and banking environment are constantly collecting large sums of money: for example, insurance manager Clark, headquartered in Berlin and Frankfurt, received around € 24 million at the beginning of last year. Shortly thereafter, there was 20 million euros for the Berlin Insurtech Simplesurance, which operates a platform that brings online shops, insurers and customers together.
Also published on Medium.