How Ominimo Attracts Top Talent in the Insurance Industry
The Challenges of Hiring Top Talent
How do you get talented engineers to work for a startup in a mundane field at a time when more exciting companies are paying well and hiring aggressively? One insurance startup, Ominimo, has found a way to attract top talent by giving engineers the license to apply their skills and reinvent how the field works.
Ominimo’s Approach
Launchedin 12 months ago, Ominimo believes it has found a different and better approach to understanding and pricing risk. The company is already profitable and growing fast, with 300,000 policies signed up in its first market of Hungary. To fuel its next stage of life, Ominimo is taking its first outside investment from a strategic backer, Zurich Insurance Group.
Investment and Valuation
TechCrunch understands from sources that Zurich is making a €10 million equity investment (around $11 million) for 5% of the company, valuing Ominimo at €200 million ($220 million). Neither Ominimo nor Zurich commented on the amount invested, but both have confirmed the valuation.
The Opportunity
Ominimo’s funding comes at a time when one of the most well-known and well-capitalized insurance startups in Europe, WeFox, is selling off parts of its business and picking up lifeline financing to keep from going under. This serves as both a cautionary tale about how to grow an insurance business and a clear opportunity.
Ominimo’s Business Model
Ominimo is already profitable in its current business, but it’s a modest effort. The company is active in just one market, Hungary, and focuses on one kind of insurance, car insurance for consumers. The plan is to replicate its model to more geographies and categories. Ominimo will expand into more than 10 new markets, starting with Poland, Sweden, and the Netherlands, using Zurich as its risk carrier.
Using AI and Big-Data Analytics
The crux of what Ominimo is doing is applying some AI-based reasoning around big-data analytics. When building and pricing an insurance quote, a traditional insurance company might use five or six main parameters to determine a price. A newer insurer might add another 10 or 15 parameters to that. Ominimo takes all of these details, plus population density and more, into account when it’s going through its calculations.
Competitive Advantage
Ominimo’s track record speaks for itself, according to CEO Dusan Komar. "I think what really matters is actually performance in the market, so if you compare our performance to Lemonade’s, you will actually see the difference," he said.
Key to Attracting Top Talent
Giving talent a place to do the kind of work they want to be doing is key to attracting and retaining key people, according to Komar. "We have eight medalists from mathematics and physics olympiads among our data science team," he said. "These are really brilliant young minds who now, for the first time, get to deploy their full potential on a global scale."
Conclusion
Ominimo’s approach to attracting top talent in the insurance industry is a refreshing take on traditional recruitment strategies. By giving engineers the license to apply their skills and reinvent how the field works, the company has been able to attract and retain key talent.
FAQs
Q: What is Ominimo’s business model?
A: Ominimo is an insurance startup that uses AI and big-data analytics to offer car insurance to consumers in Hungary and plans to expand to more geographies and categories.
Q: How does Ominimo use AI and big-data analytics?
A: Ominimo uses AI-based reasoning around big-data analytics to take into account a wide range of parameters when building and pricing insurance quotes.
Q: What is Ominimo’s competitive advantage?
A: Ominimo’s track record speaks for itself, with a loss ratio below the market average and a market share of 7% in Hungary.
Q: How does Ominimo attract top talent?
A: Ominimo gives engineers the license to apply their skills and reinvent how the field works, attracting and retaining key talent.
