TypTap Insurance Company can boast that its technology is completely developed in-house by sister company Exzeo.
“We don’t use any third-party software platform. Zero. Nothing,” said TypTap Insurance Company president Kevin Mitchell (pictured) of his Florida-based carrier focused on housing and flood insurance. “[Exzeo] developed our ability to quote and bind.”
The company does business in 12 US states and works with more than 1,500 independent agents nationally, Mitchell said. Exzeo has developed technology with them in mind as well.
“They developed a platform or portal for agents to log in and type in a single-family home address and just answer a few short questions, anywhere – from four to eight questions and they can get a bindable quote on a home,” Mitchell said.
Both companies are part of HCI Group, a holding company with subsidiaries in the homeowners’ insurance, information technology, real estate, and reinsurance business. Exzeo launched in 2012 and TypTap followed four years later once the company’ core software was ready to go.
“We have technology that can drive a better outcome – the loss ratio – and no-one believed us, so we had to start our own carrier to prove it,” Mitchell said.
TypTap’s core technology is very much in the insurtech space, with tech including policy administration tools, claims management tools and other advances and innovations. It is also quite easy to integrate with interested independent agents, Mitchell asserted.
Step one involves agents filling out simplified paperwork to become a TypTap agent that provides login credentials, and then they get access to the cloud-based system.
“It’s no special app of any sorts, and they log into our platform,” Mitchell said. “We have marketing staff on the ground that trains the agency how to use our platform, answers any questions and explains the niche in the underwriting appetite we’re looking for in any given geographic area, and then they’re off to the races.”
There are also webinar or information link training options, but Mitchell said the process is very simple and the system doesn’t require much training.
In short, agents can start using the platform to do business within a few days.
Many insurtech startups and larger technology companies have developed platforms for agents or brokers that are far more elaborate and often require training into weeks or months. Mitchell said there’s room for different approaches, but TypTap’s narrow focus benefits its business plan and tech use.
“Everybody has an approach, plan or design … and what they view as best,” Mitchell said. “But I think there’s a lot of value in being focused. We’re excited to be focused on one product – homeowners. It’s a large market – a $110 billion market across the US and growing because of inflationary pressures on rebuild costs. That market is going to grow, and we want to be a specialist in that area.”
He cautioned that some “insurance people try to do a number of different things,” but said he prefers narrowly targeting one line and using technology to back that up.
“We’re there because the homeowners’ market is big enough. It allows us to truly focus and be the real expert in the space and that’s what we’re trying to do,” he said. “All of our technology has been catered to quoting and binding and managing and servicing the homeowners’ business, so it allows us to simplify the whole process from start to finish.”
In the end, insurance technology has its place, but Mitchell said the greater focus should be on performance.
“A lot of people talk about insurance technology, but the beauty of our business is every quarter we get a scorecard. It tells us how well our technology is working, and it relates to the loss ratio,” Mitchell said. “If you have technology you built that you feel is going to drive a material benefit, then you’ll see it show up in your loss ratio.”
In other words, performance indicates how well technology is working.
“You get the report card at the end of each quarter,” he said. “It grades you on how well you’re doing from an underwriting [perspective], which relates to how well your technology is working in regard to selecting risks.”
