Bitesize InsurTech: Everledger
December 9, 2016 Greg Brown
Everledger was founded in 2015 to tackle the problem of insurance and financing fraud for high-value assets. The business uses new technologies such as machine vision and blockchain to authenticate the uniqueness and validity of assets and any related transactions such as financing, underwriting and claims. The aim is to eliminate various types of fraud like misrepresentation of certificates, counterfeiting and multiple financings of a single asset.
Everledger has initially focused on flagging fraudulent diamond trades due to high levels of fraud in that market. The firm’s founder and CEO, Leanne Kemp, also has a background in jewellery claims settlement. However, the company is already looking beyond diamonds into fine art and wine and in the long term Everledger aims to cover all asset classes.
Its model is fairly simple. Asset owners submit assets for registration, which uses both traditional paper certificates and hyper-resolution images of the item. This creates a unique ‘signature’ and the information is added to the blockchain. At each subsequent transaction (the purchase of insurance, for example), the asset is validated and the transaction added to the same blockchain. All members of the ecosystem hold a copy of the blockchain so can check any subsequent transactions for fraud.
Everledger’s use of blockchain is also of note. They have not succumbed to the industry hype around the technology as ‘the new internet’. Their use of blockchain is fairly prosaic as an immutable record of the assets and any linked transactions. As Calogero Scibetto, Head of Business Development and Operations at Everledger says: “We are not a blockchain business, we are a certification and fraud mitigation business. We just happen to use the blockchain technology.”
Everledger are tackling a real problem for the industry. According to the company, 65% of fraudulent claims are not detected today. They believe that the root cause is the inability to validate an asset with complete certainty and know what transactions have happened in relation to the asset.
Everledger’s platform resolves that issue. There are clear benefits to the whole industry if their proposition lives up to the promise. We look forward to seeing how they progress.
