Meet the insurtech: Sensa's telematics without UBI

As insurance’s digital transformation continues, insurtechs are finding new avenues to bring their offerings to a wider audience. So is the case for Sensa, an offshoot of the existing insurtech MDgo, that is choosing to bring the company’s crash detection technology directly to consumers with the launch of an auto insurance product.

Like many entrants to the auto insurance space, Sensa uses telemetry to set itself apart from legacy companies. However, it’s not monitoring driving habits. Instead, the Sensa device only activates at the time of a crash, providing immediate notice of loss to the company as well as beginning a triage process that founder Itay Bengad believes can reduce loss severity.

“When people hear about telematics, they hear UBI, right? But telematics is only the way you obtain data from a car,” he says. “But we have taken that [claim] moment, which turns into significant profitability due to the loss ratio reduction.

The company is betting it can eschew the traditional UBI path for telematics technology with traditional underwriting, while still demonstrating the value of technology and yielding cost savings by focusing on getting data at the point of claim.

“We didn’t feel that promising a vague future potential discount works very well,” Bengad explains. “Instead, we are there at the moment of truth, the moment that no one wants to be at, from a mild claim to something more severe.”

[See Digital Insurance’s research on UBI adoption from fall 2021]

The new product is live in Illinois, with Texas, Indiana, and Ohio in the near future as well. It’s distributed through the agent channel Bengad also says that more offerings using the sensor technology, including home insurance, are in the company’s plans.

He declined to name who was underwriting the policies, but said that information would be coming soon as well. MDgo and Sensa’s investment backers include Bessemer Venture Partners, Target Global, Volvo, Hyundai Motors, and Nationwide.