State Automobile Mutual Insurance Co.’s newly launched $25 million venture fund has made its first investment. The lucky winner is Matterport, an immersive media technology company whose state-of-the-art 3-D imaging platform has a use in underwriting and claims.

Neither party – State Auto Labs Fund or Matterport – is disclosing the specific dollar amount. The money will help Matterport accelerate its expansion in the insurance industry and also build out its global infrastructure.

“Matterport has the opportunity to revolutionize how property risks are underwritten and claims are handled in the industry,” Kim Garland, senior vice president, Commercial Lines & Managing Director of State Auto labs, said in prepared remarks. “We are delighted to work with Matterport as they extend their revolutionary technology to the insurance vertical.”

Matterport, based in Sunnyvale, Calif., with offices in San Francisco, Chicago and London, UK, has a technology platform designed to help customers quickly and cheaply digitally capture, document, visualize and collaborate around properties in 3-D on web, mobile and in virtual reality. The platform works with Matterport Cloud as an end-to-end system that automates creation of state-of-the-art 3-D models, high-quality 4K 2-D photography, floorplans and other key assets. In short, the technology allows for complete documentation of a property’s features, dimensions, conditions and contents at any point in time, the company explained in its funding announcement.

The company promotes its technology as being useful for insurance claims by noting that it provides “comprehensiveness of documentation” and “a level of dimensionality” that helps during the claims process. Its immersive 3-D models freeze a property in time by recording objects as they appear both before and after damage occurs, the investment announcement noted.

Matterport claims to have customers across industries including residential real estate, multifamily and commercial real estate, vacation rentals, hotels, business listings, architecture, engineering, construction, insurance and facilities. It also said that it has captured over 900,000 spaces to date, generating more than 300 million views globally.

State Auto launched its fund in September 2017 in collaboration with Rev1 Ventures, an Ohio-based firm focused on connecting startups with corporate innovation teams. The fund is designed to back innovative P/C industry ideas and startups. Investment priorities include the Internet of Things, wearables and other related technologies designed to help improve industry-related analytics, decision-making, distribution channels and more.

Source: Matterport, State Auto