Bâloise backs on-demand insurance start-up Trov
Swiss insurance company Bâloise has invested an undisclosed amount in Trov, a US-based insurtech firm that enables users to take out insurance policies for individual items. Trov's expertise will help Bâloise develop its own digital strategy, said Thomas Sieber, head of corporate center at Bâloise. The insurance company has dedicated a total of CHF50m ($52.3m) to invest in insurtech start-ups that can drive digitisation at Bâloise.

Baloise is investing in a U.S.-based insurtech firm specialized in on-demand insurance policies for personal items. The company has already launched its offering in the U.K. and Australia and will roll out the service in the U.S. later this year.

Trov, a startup founded 2012 in California, has launched the first on-demand insurance platform for single items, allowing people to buy policies for things they care most about, Baloise said in a statement today.

«Trov is a start-up with the potential to create disruption in the insurance industry and in several markets it has already done just that,» said Gert De Winter, CEO of Baloise.

The Trov application is helping people to collect information about all their goods, identifying those things they care so much about that they want to buy an insurance policy for.

Result of Anthemis Cooperation

The investment in Trov is the first transaction in connection with Baloise’s collaboration with the investment and advisory firm Anthemis.

«On the one hand, this investment promises additional returns for Baloise if Trov is successful,» said Thomas Sieber, head of corporate center at Baloise. «But on the other hand, the know-how transfer also creates strategic benefits for our own core business.»

Baloise’s investment is part of the Series D financing secured by Trov in April 2017.

Impetus for Digitization Process

At its investors’ day at the end of 2016, Baloise had announced that it would team up with Anthemis to invest in growth. Baloise is making 50 million Swiss francs available for equity investments in continental European, U.K.-based and U.S.-based start-ups that offer the potential to drive forward the process of digitization at Baloise.

These investments are intended to give Baloise a slice of the financial rewards from the success of insurtech companies. At the same time, Baloise will be able to gather experience that it can apply to its own core business and the implementation of the company's digitization strategy. Baloise plans to make as many as ten investment transactions by 2021.