InsurTech Corridor participant and flood forecast specialist Previsico has announced a partnership with Geosite, a leading geospatial data provider.
The new venture provides Geosite’s US carrier clients with live actionable flood alerts, so they can work with their customers ahead of a storm to mitigate flood losses.
Previsico’s live actionable insights, including, uniquely, for surface water flooding, are now available through Bedrock, Geosite’s multi-peril, spatial data engine platform. Properties that are most likely to experience flooding are identified and when a flood event approaches an alert is issued giving customers up to 48 hours’ notice so they can take mitigation measures.
The Previsico-Geosite partnership represents a major advance for the insurance industry: in the past, insurers had to rely on either long-term flood projections or wait until long after a flood to assess the damage. With half of all US economic losses from flooding due to surface-water flooding, by bringing Previsico’s live flood alerts into Geosite’s Bedrock platform, carriers can now provide their customers with early flood warnings to prevent damages before the waters rise.
“Our aim is to give carriers using Bedrock more rapid and accurate reserving and post-catastrophe claims handling across a comprehensive range of perils,” explained Geosite CEO and founder Rachel Olney. “The partnership with Previsico will deliver powerful insights to help deliver on that promise.”
Previsico CEO Jonathan Jackson added: “As the US insurance industry addresses the ever-increasing threat from flooding due to climate change and urbanisation, this partnership delivers a truly unique solution. Together, Previsico and Geosite offer a one-stop-shop for insurers to accurately assess properties that are at imminent risk of flood and deliver effective flood resilience measures.”
Previsico’s real-time flood forecasts, updated every three hours with projected flood depths, are already used by Zurich, Liberty, and Generali.
Rytas Stankunas of InsurTech Corridor said: “Previsico is a great example of how UK insurtechs are making a real difference to insurers and their customers.
“Their technology is already an important tool for the insurance industry in helping people and organisations to proactively mitigate the impact of flooding, but now the partnership with Geosite will have a huge potential for insurers in the US, where the devastating impact of flooding caused by hurricanes and other extreme weather events is increasing rapidly.”
The data Geosite sources and surfaces for insurance carriers comes from multiple sources including satellites and drones and can be used to analyse a range of perils from flooding to wildfires and earthquakes. Customers integrate geospatial data via an API to make day-to-day operations and management processes more efficient.
