South Africa's Discovery Insurance Partners with U.S. Telematics Company

Discovery Limited (Johannesburg, South Africa) and Cambridge Mobile Telematics (Cambridge, Mass.), have entered a strategic partnership for usage-based insurance programs.

Cambridge's technology taps into sensor data from smartphones, cars, and other connected devices. Discovery's current telematics program, Vitalitydrive, currently uses a proprietary onboard device called DQ-Track; indications are that the company plans to expand that to other hardware options.

"We are very excited to partner with CMT given its breadth and depth of expertise in the field of mobile telematics," says Discovery CEO Anton Ossip, in a statement. "Over the past year and a half, Discovery Insure worked very closely with CMT and its MIT-based experts to develop a smartphone app that allows anyone with a smartphone to monitor their trips and driving behavior through telematics technology. This technology has incredible potential for gathering significant and relevant data from a large group of drivers to learn more about the behaviors that contribute to road fatalities and injuries."

Most of Discovery's clients are in South Africa, but the company also claims business in the U.K., U.S., China, Australia and Singapore.

[Taking a hybrid approach to UBI]

Nathan Golia is senior editor of Insurance & Technology. He joined the publication in 2010 as associate editor and covers all aspects of the nexus between insurance and information technology, including mobility, distribution, core systems, customer interaction, and risk ... View Full Bio