Zesty.ai, a San Francisco Bay Area-based artificial intelligence startup, recently announced the closing of its Series A funding exercise of $13 million.
Blamar, a private investment fund located in Luxembourg, led the funding exercise.
Plug & Play Ventures among other existing investors also took part in the exercise, which showed their continued support for the company.
The financing round acknowledges the position of Zesty.ai as an innovative leader in the ongoing massive digital transformation, particularly in the global insurance industry.
Zestsy.ai leverages the power of artificial intelligence in helping Managing General Agents, reinsurers and Property & Casualty insurance carriers in better assessing risk.
The artificial intelligence (AI) startup has created advanced computer vision technology by using aerial imagery and satellite coupled with structured data sources to assist in capturing numerous data points not only on buildings but also their surroundings without having to set foot on such premises.
Zesty.ai also utilizes machine learning in modeling multi-peril tragic events such as floods, wildfire, hurricane and many others, primarily at the property levels with exceptional accuracy.
For instance, the degree of losses experienced in the advent of the California wildfires amounting to a $16 billion back in 2017 and $19 billion in 2018 blindsided the insurance industry.
Most insurers depend on obsolete Fire Hazard Severity Zone maps when it comes to assessing wildfire risk that missed the set mark in 85 percent of the cases during the Santa Rosa, CA wildfire in 2017.
Recently, Zesty.ai rolled out its wildfire model, which combines high fidelity property level aspects regarding weather patterns, topography, neighborhood characteristics, vegetation, building materials and many more.
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The startup utilizes machine learning in integrating these distinctive risk modifiers with actual loss data garnered from the different wildfire cases into a predictive risk score that significantly affects not only risk mitigation strategies but also underwriting decisions.
“We are honored that zesty.ai has chosen Blamar as their capital partner. Our long-term investment philosophy aligns closely with the momentous opportunity in front of the company,” said Laszlo Bots, CEO of Blamar. “We know Attila and Kumar well and have the utmost confidence in their execution capabilities.”
Plug & Play is a top Insurtech system made up of more than 80 global insurance firms.
In August 2018, the company’s partner insurance executives voted Zesty.ai as the Most Innovative Insurtech Startup. “Many of our members are excited to partner with zesty.ai and the feedback on the product has been overwhelmingly positive,” commented Ali Safavi, Partner of Plug & Play Ventures. “This is the reason why we decided to invest in this financing round.”
“Artificial Intelligence will revolutionize the traditionally data-driven insurance industry, and we are thrilled to be at the forefront of this massive change,” claimed Attila Toth, the CEO, and Co-Founder of zesty.ai. “We are immensely thankful to our customers, employees, investors, and partners for enabling us to become a leader in this space!”
The San Francisco-based company is expected to utilize the recently raised funds in expanding its customer success, engineering, data science teams as well as ingest more proprietary data into its system.
