Rebuilding The Trucking Insurance Market: HDVI Closes $16M Series A

Trucking is a key industry for the U.S. economy, but a number of driver mistakes, such as using mobile phones while driving, have made it difficult for trucking companies to provide its fleet with insurance coverage that is both cost effective and provides value.

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Enter High Definition Vehicle Insurance, HDVI, a startup that helps small and mid-size trucking fleets improve their safety, compliance and operations. The company offers its product through high-quality telematics and an integrated suite of software and services at the same price or better than traditional insurers.

Chuck Wallace, who co-founded Esurance in 1999, co-founded HDVI in 2018 with Reid Spitz, head of operations, who was involved in the insurtech and freight and logistics tech practices at 8VC.

To advance its mission, the commercial auto insurance business raised its first venture capital of $16 million in Series A funding led by 8VC and Munich Re Ventures, with additional participation from Qualcomm Ventures and Autotech Ventures.

The industry is in need of innovation, as insurers struggle to make a profit and trucking fleets pay significant amounts of money, but don’t see value outside of the core insurance product, Wallace, CEO of HDVI told Crunchbase News.

“We are rebuilding the insurance company from the ground up with advanced data and technology that incumbents have trouble availing themselves of,” he added. That technology includes telematics, computer vision cameras, electronic logging devices, embedded systems, and third-party data.

HDVI will use the funding to scale growth and expand its product offering, including adding new employees, launching into new states, and adding technology features for agents, fleets and drivers.

The company is already writing policies in Tennessee and Alabama, and is focused on expanding into the Midwest and Southwest. It currently has 25 employees with a target to be at 35 by the end of the year.

“These are tough businesses to run, and they do struggle to incorporate telematics to improve safety and better driving coaching and feedback so they can improve compliance,” Spitz said in an interview. “We analyze the data and bring it back to them and interpret the data so they can operate efficiently and safer.”

Feature photo: iStock
Blogroll illustration: Li-Anne Dias