UK Insurtech Zego Expands in Europe, Targeting £20B Fleet Insurance Market

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Commercial motor insurer Zego announced a European expansion plan by launching in the Netherlands and ramping up operations in France, while aiming to identify other target territories during 2022.

The company, which became the UK’s first insurtech unicorn last year, will target the £20 billion-plus European fleet insurance market by offering a product that rewards better, safer driving, empowering customers to save up to 20% on premiums at renewal through proactive risk management, said Zego in a statement.

Zego’s tech-led proposition centers around a fully automated fleet portal, harnessing telematics to unearth behavioral insights that empower fleet managers to improve performance and take control of the price of their premiums.

As well as offering fleet managers the ability to save up to 20% on premiums at renewal, Zego’s fleet portal saves fleet customers up to 40% on admin time, while also helping to improve route efficiency, minimise vehicle and driver downtime, reduce fuel costs, reduce wear and tear, slash maintenance bills, and ease road congestion.

Further by adopting Zego’s insight-driven approach (which uses telematics), fleet companies can also cut the number of insurance claims they make annually by up to 10%, the company said. Zego believes that aligning insurance premiums to the driving behavior of fleets can lead to a dramatic drop in road collisions by commercial vehicles.

Like the UK, both France and the Netherlands have seen operating costs covering fuel, wages and maintenance rocket in recent months, meaning Zego’s more efficient approach could be a lifeline for many businesses on the continent, the company said.

“Commercial vehicles now account for over 13% of the vehicles on our roads, the highest proportion ever recorded, and this number is rising, as technology continues to decentralize our shopping and travel habits,” commented Sten Saar, CEO of Zego.

“For the people and businesses managing these fleets, flexibility and control are both highly sought after, but driver behavior remains a huge variable that is notoriously difficult to influence,” Saar added.

“Telematics and data science have proven that they can improve driving behavior, and when combined with a financial incentive, they have great potential to make fleets safer and cheaper to run. At Zego we are using this data to understand risk better than traditional insurers and other insurtechs, so we can offer more accurate pricing and more control; both of which have halo effects that improve life for everyone.”

Zego was founded in 2016 by ex-Deliveroo directors, Sten Saar and Harry Franks, and enjoyed immediate success after pioneering flexible price-per-mile insurance. This product, which enables fleet managers and self-employed drivers and riders to pay only when their vehicles are in use, has been critical to the survival of many businesses during the pandemic. Zego now supports fleets and drivers working for some of the largest last mile companies in the world including Amazon, Uber, BP and Deliveroo.

Zego has also raised over $280 million in funding and was the first UK insurtech to be valued at over $1 billion. Since January 2020, the company has grown its headcount from around 300 to 637 today.