Irish InsurTech Blink has started marketing a hurricane non-damage parametric insurance product designed to provide liquidity to small and medium-sized businesses after a natural disaster.

Called “Blink Interruption,” the product aims to cut average business interruption claims processing time by up to 95 percent. It uses automated financial validation and immediate pay-out options so businesses can get back on their feet just days after the event occurs.

A representative for the Cork, Ireland-based company said the product is now being offered in the United States but plans call for rolling it out globally.

The product was developed in Lloyd’s Lab, the 10-week innovation accelerator program operated by the Lloyd’s market.

“Its appeal is in its simplicity,” Paul Prendergast, Blink co-founder & CEO, said in prepared remarks. “Critically, it allows our insurance partners to offer cover through a streamlined claims validation platform that immediately begins measuring the impact of a disaster on a business, automates pay-outs and demonstrates to customers that insurers are there for them, when they need it most.”

How It Works

• Blink continually monitors national weather systems, tracks hurricane formation and projected landfall path.
• Blink proactively confirms insured party was in hurricane path.
• Blink measures the financial impact, verifies the business impact and confirms the policy cover levels. Blink issues payment to the policyholder.
• Blink validates business impact by tracking business activity via open banking and accounting software integrations.
• Validation process is repeated daily and ongoing business impact confirmed.
• Claim pay-outs commence after one week, to an amount and duration that is completely configurable subject to partner requirements.

Founded in 2016 by Prendergast and Chief Technology Officer Peter Bermingham, Blink originally offered flight disruption travel insurance using parametric triggers. The company was acquired by AIM-listed CPP Group just six months after it was launched. Blink partners globally with insurance and financial services companies, driving parametric insurance product innovation in Asia, Europe and North America.

Source: Blink

*A version of this story ran previously in our sister publication Insurance Journal.