MONTREAL, May 4, 2023 /CNW/ – Koïos Intelligence, a Quebec-based start-up that provides insurance professionals with a conversational assistant powered by artificial intelligence (AI), announced today to have concluded a $6.5 million financing round with the participation of Propulia Capital, Canada Economic Development, Export Development Canada, Caisse Desjardins des Technologies and other private investors, who are convinced that natural language processing is poised to revolutionize the operations of organizations. This financing includes equity and other financial instruments such as debt instruments and call options.
This new investment will allow Koïos to rapidly expand into new markets, while continuing to develop its virtual assistant, making it easier than ever for insurers to do business.
“Our growth has been significant since the company’s launch and this round of financing will allow us to further solidify our business strategy. In the medium term, our goal is to become the first conversational assistant in the insurance industry in Canada and the United States, revolutionizing the way people shop for insurance coverage,” said Mohamed Hanini, President, CEO and CTO of Koïos Intelligence.
By combining insights from experts in insurance, finance, and AI, Koïos identified a disconnect between the way brokers currently sell insurance, and the way consumers want to buy it. In fact, in 2022, the overwhelming majority of insurance sales were still done over the phone or in person and required an average of over an hour. However, new generations of consumers have increasingly sophisticated expectations and, according to a survey conducted by Koïos Intelligence, 75% of them expect a response from an agent in less than 5 minutes. Moreover, 65% of consumers prefer online platforms to call centers when shopping for insurance.
Koïos’ Olivo conversational assistant is AI-powered and acts as a virtual intermediary between the insurance broker and the consumer, allowing the consumer to shop for different coverage options, and even complete insurance purchases, all while asking the virtual assistant questions. Olivo is interconnected with leading insurance industry systems such as Applied and the Centre for Study of Insurance Operations (CSIO). These integrations allow Koïos Intelligence to be part of the insurance value chain and to retain clients such as PMA Insurance, Tardif Group Insurance, Intact’s partners in the Virage Group, and Rogers Insurance, one of the largest insurance brokers in Canada. This connectivity streamlines the pre-purchase, purchase and post-purchase processes for all types of insurance products through data automation.
The standardization of processes allows for greater efficiency throughout the value chain, a 30% reduction in administrative costs for insurance brokers or agents, and a potential 400% increase in sale conversion rates. In parallel, Olivo offers consumers fast and personalized service, available 24/7 in the language of their choice with a 30% shorter waiting time than if they had to contact a call centre.
Olivo uses multimodal AI, a type of artificial intelligence in which multiple channels of information transmission (text, voice, image) are used to train interlocking algorithms to better understand consumer interactions.
“In the near future, the nature of the activities of insurance agents and brokers will evolve towards more personalized advice, along with a drastic reduction in data entry, since virtual assistants can do this job very well,” says Mohamed Hanini on Olivo’s role.
“We are pleased to support and welcome a visionary company like Koïos into our ecosystem of start-ups, offering an innovative solution that improves the experience of all parties involved in the entire value chain,” says Geneviève Biron, Founder and Managing Director of Propulia Capital, who became a close advisor to Koïos’s Board of Directors.
Founded in 2017, Koïos Intelligence’s mission is to empower the insurance and financial industry with the next generation of intelligent and customized systems that are supported by Artificial Intelligence, statistics and operational research. Combining the knowledge of our lead experts in Insurance, Finance and Artificial Intelligence, Koïos is developing new technologies that redefine the interactions between insurers, brokers and customers.
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For further information: Eric Aach, eaach@national.ca, 514 569-3594