A startup using AI to disrupt the car insurance business has hired a Progressive veteran
- An insurtech that nabbed $90 million in funding in 2018 created a new executive role focusing on managing its actuarial, insurance product management, and underwriting teams, Business Insider has learned.
- Jeff Briglia will serve as the company's first chief insurance officer.
- Briglia previously held roles at Progressive, Allstate and Mercury Insurance.
A car insurance startup that raised nearly $100 million in 2018 has hired a former insurance executive in a newly formed role, Business Insider has learned.
Metromile, a US-based insurtech that calculates car insurance policies using a pay-per-mile model, named Jeff Briglia its first-ever chief insurance officer. Briglia, who spent over 15 years at Progressive, Allstate, and Mercury Insurance, will lead Metromile's actuarial, insurance product management, and underwriting teams, according to Dan Preston, Metromile's CEO.
Briglia will manage teams in San Francisco, where Metromile is based, and Tempe, Arizona, looking to grow both groups in the coming months, Preston said. He'll split his time between the two cities and Cleveland, where he was previously based.
Preston said Briglia will also work with the team behind Metromile's virtual claims assistant AVA. The AI-based system can reconstruct accidents to determine if the claim is accurate and automatically approve payments. AVA is involved in a quarter of Metromile's claims currently, according to Preston, although he expects that percentage to grow in 2019. Briglia will also work with insurers looking to license Metromile's technology.
Briglia served as a general manager for Mercury Insurance for just under a year before joining Metromile, according to his LinkedIn profile. Prior to that he spent two years as a senior vice president at Allstate in product and claims leadership. Briglia's longest tenure was the nearly 14 years he spent at Progressive in various roles.
Metromile raised $90 million in Series E funding in July 2018 in a round led by insurance companies Tokio Marine Holding and Intact Financial. The company did not disclose a valuation.
Insurance companies are increasingly looking at how they can best work with innovative startups looking to disrupt their businesses. Venture capital firms have also taken notice of the growing insurtech space and the potential it holds, citing it as one of hottest fintech themes they plan to follow in 2019.
Sign up here for our weekly newsletter "Wall Street Insider," a behind-the-scenes look at the stories dominating banking, business, and big deals.