Nationwide Insurance

Nationwide is a financial services company that provides insurance policies across the USA. As of 2018, the insurer had 30,000 employees and booked nearly $47 billion in total sales. A Fortune 100 company, their coverage includes auto, property, life and health options along with a variety of business insurance plans.

Since 2018 Nationwide has had a particularly heavy focus on innovation, as part of both its long and short term strategies. Its VC team has made multiple insurtech investments (including in startups such as Sure, Next Insurance, Betterview and Insurify). Last year the company also revealed plans to open a new 31,000 square feet innovation centre in Columbus, Ohio, in 2019, which will house several dozen new innovation-focused team members.

In February 2019, Nationwide launched SmartMiles, a pay-per-mile auto insurance plan. Currently available in Illinois with plans to roll out in additional states throughout 2019, SmartMiles consists of two rates: a base rate and a per-mile rate. After signing up, customers receive a device that plugs into the car, which allows them to track their mileage and monthly payments online, along with the option to receive a 10% “safe driving behaviour discount.” The company also has a solution for multiple-car households, allowing customers to select a custom insurance policy for each vehicle.

The following month, Nationwide partnered with Slice Labs to develop an on-demand motor insurance for rideshare drivers, with coverage available for just a few minutes or up to multiple hours.

In Q4 of 2019 Nationwide launched digital insurance platform Spire. The mobile platform, aimed at millennials, will initially offer auto insurance, although this will expand to other products in the future. Spire will provide quotes in around 60 seconds, with users only required to answer four questions and provide a photo of their driving license.

In October of 2019, Nationwide partnered with IVANS for digital distribution via its IVANS Markets, which has a network of more than 32,000 independent insurance agencies.

Nationwide announced a three year commercial agreement with property insight company Betterview in November 2019. The agreement enables the insurance carrier to utilise Betterview's predictive roof analytics and risk management platform for commercial property renewals. Nationwide has previously invested in Betterview's early-stage funding rounds.

Nationwide introduced Nationwide Express, a new platform for agents in 2019, to be made available in 2020. The platform provides auto, homeowners and renters quotes for 22 states in under 2 minutes, and also enables agents to customise policies, process payments and more.

In January 2020 Nationwide announced the launch of the Vantage 360 Premium Partner Program, a telematics partnership program to help reduces costs in researching and developing telematics and fleet management solutions, and an extention of its previous Vantage 30 suite of telematics products. The program - initially available in New York, New Jersey and Texas - has begun with two telematic startups, Azuga and Zubie, which offer fleet management and GPS tracking capabilities, amongst other solutions. Additional startups are expected to join the partnership program over the course of 2020.

In April 2020, some weeks into a global lock-down due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Nationwide Insurance announced a 'permanent shift to work from home' even after the world returns to some state of post-Covid-19 normalcy. The company will create four corporate campuses across the US, with employees offered transfers or WFH in most other locations.

Nationwide and Cambridge Mobile Telematics partnered to help prevent distracted driving in October 2020. Nationwide's SmartRide app (powered by CMT) will now show drivers when and where they were driving while distracted by their phones and provide feedback.

In June 2021 Nationwide licensed Insurify's comparison platform for its Digital Brokerage unit. The Digital Brokerage helps customers who are looking for cover that the insurer doesn't offer in that state - Insurify will offer quotes from other carriers who do offer those products, whilst Nationwide keeps that customer's details on file in case they launch that product in the future. Nationwide has been an investor in Insurify since 2017.

In November 2022 Nationwide announced it was teaming up with Quanturi in order to help prevent fires. As part of the collaboration Nationwide's customers will be able to access Quanturi’s HAYTECH which is a wireless hay monitoring system. Quanturi is an IoT company which provides advanced technology for agriculture such as preventive systems for fires and monitoring systems for quality management.

Ondo InsurTech PLC has been expanding its LeakBot technology in partnership with Nationwide, one of the largest home insurance companies in the United States. The deployment of LeakBot devices to Nationwide customers in the US has shown significant success and exceeded expectations.