Home insurance insurtech Hippo continued its ambitious growth agenda this week, announcing its buy of Sheltr. The acquired company connects users to maintenance professionals that perform a 30-point inspection to give property owners a window into potential problems.
“We’ve been getting many solutions to our customers using technology to identify issues, like aerial imagery, says Daniel Blanaru, VP of growth initiatives at Hippo. “We’ve seen great results with the Sheltr team form the tech they’ve built out and alignment with Hippo on the customer focus.”
Sheltr is currently live in the Bay Area and Dallas metro areas. In piloting the program with Hippo policyholders there, more than 50 percent of items discovered carried major claims risk.
“We saw that a lot of people are interested in proactive information,” says Andrew Wynn, co-founder of Sheltr and now director of home services at Hippo. “In Texas, for example, recaulking around the windows is a need we identify that’s unique to the region.”
Wynn, along with all Sheltr employees, will remain in place after the buy, with plans to scale the Sheltr service as a Hippo company next year. Blanaru says that Hippo envisions acquiring a portfolio of complementary companies as it grows, but has no future plans besides Sheltr in place.
