Car insurance is undoubtably a necessary evil. Drivers loathe to pay for it, nonetheless, any reasonable person will admit, if they were to experience vehicle related accident or loss, they’d be please they had it. Insurance companies’ [in this case, most notably car insurance companies’] apparent lack of innovation has led to the general public viewing them as mostly uniform in their policies’ level of cover and how premiums are calculated. With the current economic climate squeezing the purse-strings of ordinary drivers, even safe and low-mileage drivers become frustrated with high premiums generated by the standardised criteria used to calculate risk.
Flitter, a French insurtech startup, is disrupting the car insurance industry by changing how an individual’s risk is calculated, instead of bundling them into generalised categories. After already attracting 30,000 customers, who Flitter have saved up to 50% on their previous policies, the startup has just announced it has landed €3.5 million in seed funding.
The investment was led by Swiss insurance company, Helvetia through its Helvetia Venture Fund. There was also participation from eminent figures in the insurance and tech industries, including Stéphane Treppoz, ex-CEO of Sarenza, Christophe Eberlé, founder of the consulting firm Optimind, Frenchfounders fund, Laurent Ritter, co-founder of Voodoo, and Adrien Montfort, co-founder of Sorare.
Flitter aims to use the funds to accelerate their growth-path, by increasing their customer base to 50,000, doubling their team to forty, further refining and ultimately achieving profitability by the end of 2024.
Reinventing Car Insurance
Paris-based Flitter was founded in January 2022 by Hajer Gorgi, Jérémy Steinberg, and Arnaud Dumora. The insurtech has grown extremely fast, accruing over 30,000 policyholders in just 18 months. Flitter’s goal is to change how car insurance premiums are calculated, by tailoring each policy to an individual’s risk.
One of the standout features of Flitter’s offering is its usage-based pricing. By tracking customers’ mileage and driving habits, the insurtech calculates premiums based on actual usage, making it an attractive option for those who drive less frequently or more cautiously. By introducing a completely digital product, they can charge customers based on how much they drive and how they drive, mile-by-mile. This has helped Flitter stand out from traditional car insurance companies and facilitated their rapid growth.
Recently the insurtech startup introduced an innovative service that takes advantage of vehicles that utilize connected technology. Depending on the level of connectivity of the model, this allows convenient and real-time updating of the metrics that Flitter uses to tailor their prices to the individual driver.
A sustainable business model
The latest funding follows a €2.5 million pre-seed round led by Global Founders Capital in January 2022. Flitter’s intervening success has impressed both their existing investors as well as those who have joined the latest seed round. The founders hope to continue building on the achievements that have inspired so much confidence in their business model.
Michael Wieser, Partner of Helvetia Venture Fund noted, “Car insurance is a €150 billion market in Europe, but few new players have positioned themselves to innovate against traditional incumbents, and none have managed to build a profitable model. Flitter’s model is well-positioned to succeed in this challenge and become one of the first insurtechs to achieve profitability while maintaining sustained growth.”
Jérémy Steinberg, co-founder and CEO of Flitter concludes, “18 months ago, we started from scratch to build a more efficient insurance model, tailored to the mobility needs of today. Our goal has always been to create a profitable company, by innovating while keeping an eye on costs. This new round, and the support from insurance experts like Helvetia, will allow us to continue our steady growth and reach profitability by the end of 2024”.
