Amodo helps insurance companies address new market trends and opportunities by enabling innovative and quick-to-market smartphone-based insurance products. The platform gathers behavioral data from different data sources, consolidates and analyses them; presents them in a very user-friendly and actionable way. The platform itself is created so that different behavioral aspects tied to risk are considered while setting up the risk pricing.
Let’s dig in more about Amodo in an interview with Marijan Mumdziev / CEO-
Tell us about Amodo.
The company was founded in 2013 in Zagreb. Amodo raised 5M USD investment from Investors such as Speed Invest, Lead Ventures, SGH Capital and Bee Next. The investment supported us in building the product and consequently acquire a great customer base, among others AIG, Porsche, and BNP Paribas. Amodo clients are on 5 continents, and more than 20 countries, with the majority being in Europe and Asia.
What were the initial challenges you faced?
The biggest challenge the industry was facing at the beginning was educating the market on the value and need for this type of solution. In the 7 years that Amodo has been around, this changed radically so now insurance companies are more educated and are increasingly looking for specific features and customized solutions to their specific use cases.
In the beginning, we were one of the pioneers of the smartphone-based telematics propositions. Like in any industry, so in ours as well, through time comes maturity. More companies such as ours emerged, Insurance companies got more educated on different options technology could offer and started developing their preferences. It is increasingly a game in which providers focused more on which part of the technology and how much of a fit their focus is for specific insurance companies.
The main motivation to build the Amodo Connected Insurance Platform was the obvious gap between customer expectations and what Insurance Product and Services deliver.
While customer expectations are changing quickly and are shaped by influences coming from other industries, the Insurance industry had difficulty catching up in the number of transformational activities. As a consequence, we see an ever-increasing number of InsurTech companies in the past 5 years addressing different parts of the value chain.
What are the products/services the company focuses on? How are your services different from those in the market?
Amodo has been named among the top five most innovative InsurTech companies worldwide by Financial Times, thanks to successful projects with its Clients. The single most important success factor of Amodo is its relentless focus on customer pain points.
The connected insurance platform is used for 4 distinct areas in the process:
- To better understand the customers through behaviour data and analysis, serve them better and in turn get the loyal customer base
- To create personalized products, services and UBI pricing models
- To enable successful product distribution through digital channels. efficiently sell exciting and new products through the new digital channel
- To reduce customer risk through risk prevention mechanics
Different data sources are used to build a comprehensive understanding of the customer behavior, including smartphone data collected through Mobile SDK, connected car data collected directly from the car or aftermarket telematics devices, various IoT devices, 3rd party platforms, and social media. Each data source has a special data processing protocol, and data is presented in a unified and actionable way to the insurance company.
Typically, insurance companies can expect a 15%-25% reduction in claims, depending on the value proposition and technology-based Risk Prevention and Engagement mechanics used. Amodo project in Latin America had dangerous parts of the city mapped out, and by encouraging people to avoid parking in these areas, Amodo Client managed to reduce the claims for bodily injuries among users of the app by 60%.
Is there any new addition to the list of products/services? Anything exciting you would like to share?
A product we are excited about is our first smartphone-based pay-per-mile insurance project. This project will be out in the market by the end of the year and the idea is that this product is perfectly adapted to the needs of end-users. The idea is that users can purchase comprehensive insurance through the app anytime, use it to cover a certain distance or time, and stop using it once they feel there is no need for this type of coverage.
Parts of Europe have predominantly older vehicles in their car fleet and purchasing comprehensive coverage for this type of vehicle is perceived as expensive and inefficient. Since there is limited purchasing power due to a lower standard of living, these vehicles represent a significant value for their owners.
In cases of long travel or a more dangerous trip (bad weather conditions for example), there can be a will for the purchase of additional coverage. This is where our technology will come in, as it will allow drivers of these types of vehicles to purchase additional coverage only for the length of the trip they are expecting to cover and they will have the possibility of using this distance at their own choice. It does not have to be in consecutive journeys either.
I am active in the Internet of Things technologies for more than 15 years with a special focus on the impact it brings to the Insurance Industry. I continually work on raising the market awareness of the oncoming disruptive trends in the Insurance Industry. Before Amodo, I was advising the Executive Board of several telecom companies in Europe on their Go To Market Strategies for the Internet of Things offering.
What do you think are the responsibilities of an entrepreneur?
As an entrepreneur, the responsibilities are very wide. Apart from being responsible for my wellbeing and the wellbeing of my family, I feel a sense of responsibility toward all my employees and people immediately connected to them. These days we spend most of our time at work. The office environment and the possibility to feel comfortable, speak up and have a collaborative environment are pillars of Culture Values for Amodo.
With the current environment of social distancing and an earthquake we recently had in Zagreb the sense of ownership and belonging to a team are more important than ever. Employees we are looking for are people with a strong sense of responsibility for their work, that is not afraid to speak up if they have a good idea and from Amodo side we do our best to ensure everybody is happy and looking forward to coming to work every day.
Vigilance is a useful mindset that makes people proactive and risk aware.
What are the key achievements of your entrepreneurial journey?
Every new customer we work with and every investment we get is a key achievement for the whole team. It clearly shows us that the vision for the product is in line with market expectations and insurers are seeing the real value of our product and the potential for future growth in the telematics area.
How do you look after your employees? What makes your team unique?
3 pillars make Amodo unique. The first and most important one is the people that work in Amodo. We have a strong organization of very focused individuals that are passionate about the technology we are building. The second pillar is cultural values and why we do what we do. The third pillar is our Clients, whom we are here to help and make everything we do possible. It’s the Amodo trinity as we like to call it.
Can you tell us which your favorite book is? And your favorite part of the book (if any)?
Indeed, the book I enjoyed the most is Sun Tzu Art of War. If you think of your life as a fight, you will find very valuable philosophies in the book. It helped me personally to resolve many dilemmas I had in my past. This is what I look to get from any book I read.
One person, who you admire the most?
I think we live in amazing times when so many things are possible. One of the persons of our time I truly admire is Elon Musk. Combination of his Vision and capability to monetize it is a truly modern 21st Century American dream. Indeed you have to be in an environment that enables you to realize your vision while you must have the capability to articulate it properly to all the stakeholders – which is the case for Elon Musk.
Which is the most inspiring quote you have read?
As we move through our journeys called life – it is important to move “lightly”. We need to let go of our luggage from the past that holds us down. We need to “Get” good things the Future holds for us, and “Let” go of the things preventing us to do it. “Let it go” is the second-best quote I like to adhere to in my life choices.
Constant vigilance- a need or a strategy? Please share your views.
Vigilance is a very important trait of any entrepreneur. It is often confused with Paranoia, but should not be as those two things are different. Vigilance is a useful mindset that makes people proactive and risk-aware. It was one of the things that helped me to mitigate huge risks in my private and business life. Life is nothing more than a journey. What do we expect to get from it, if not the experience and wisdom? We hand it over to the next generation, so we make our species better continually. There is nothing more to it essentially.
