Betterview, an InsurTech provider of actionable property intelligence to property and casualty (P&C) insurance companies, is pleased to announce that GuideOne Insurance Company (GuideOne) has selected to implement the Betterview Property Intelligence & Risk Management Platform. GuideOne, a leading provider of coverage for religious organizations, educational institutions, and nonprofit and human services organizations across all 50 states for over 75 years, needed a solution to increase underwriting efficiency and strengthen risk management processes for commercial properties. Structurally, religious organizations often have complex roofs and pose a larger threat for insurers because the buildings are vacant most of the week. This puts such organizations and facilities at a greater risk for large losses when not managed, maintained, or monitored sufficiently. "GuideOne works differently than other insurers," said Betterview co-founder and chief operations officer David Tobias.

Frederick Mutual Insurance Company has signed a commercial agreement with Betterview – a start-up that develops solutions for the property insurance market – to leverage the latter's AI-powered property risk management platform. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. Through the agreement, Frederick Mutual will utilize Betterview's property analytics to enhance the lifecycle of its policies – from loss control and underwriting to claims and catastrophe response. Betterview's platform is used by personal lines and commercial lines carriers to identify and score roofing conditions, as well as other related property risks. The start-up makes this possible through the use of machine learning and computer vision to analyze aircraft and satellite imagery.

Betterview, a San Francisco- based provider of drone-based property inspections has been funded by one of the largest insurance and financial service provider in the U.S., to extend its machine learning platform across additional data sources. "We were very impressed with the mix of insurance and entrepreneurial experience of the co-founders and the team," says Erik Ross, the leader of Nationwide's venture capital team. "With Nationwide's recent strategic investment in Betterview, we will continue to create more value for our customers by expanding our artificial intelligence capabilities to deliver the next generation of building and property data, analytics and insights that can be used throughout an organization," says Dave Tobias, co-founder and chief operating officer of Betterview.

Nationwide is making a venture capital investment in a company that specializes in artificial intelligence (AI) and drone technology. A company release said that the insurer is making an investment in property insurance solutions developer Betterview, as part of its commitment to finance over $100 million of venture capital in "customer-centric solutions." Since it first announced its commitment to invest more than $100 million of venture capital in August, Nationwide has made nine investments including Betterview. "Drones and artificial intelligence will play a critical role in meeting the needs of our customers in the future of both underwriting and claims response. It's why we're so excited about this partnership with Betterview," said Nationwide chief innovation officer Scott Sanchez.

While much has been written about the impact of drones and artificial intelligence in P/C insurance over the last few years, the first real test of these emerging technologies didn't occur until the 2017 hurricane season. After Hurricane Irma battered Florida, reinsurers and insurers of all sizes (small, mid-sized and top ten) looked to facilitate their claims processing through the use of drones and artificial intelligence. One of the most critical factors in post-catastrophe claims processing is capturing and documenting the situation on the ground. Traditionally, this is done using on-the-ground claims adjusters and is supplemented by imagery captured from airplanes or satellites. Using Drones for Hurricane Irma Damage Assessment One of the benefits of drones is that they can quickly and safely capture many high-resolution photos after catastrophes.