They seem too trivial- but have been troubling the world for eternity. Water claims, especially, leaks incur a $16 billion payout every year. Domestic water leaks that lead to damage are usuallysmall leaks that go unnoticed for weeks, even months, until it is too late and leads to an insurance claim. It causes serious disruption for the customer and a possible large payout by the insurer.
"LeakBot is the first end-to-end, IoT-powered preventative solution that helps homeowners and insurers avoid these escape of water claims. It's a home telematics service that delivers excellent underwriting and risk management results for insurers," starts Craig Foster, founder & CEO, LeakBot. Instead of the traditionally reactive model that always reacts post the occurrence and incites pricing risk - LeakBot triggers real-time action. "LeakBot offers proactive, personalized models that draw upon individual customer data and behaviors that can deliver bespoke policies."
The all-encompassing claims mitigation system detects these leaks and fixes them before they inflict more damage. It includes LeakBot, a smart IoT water leak alarm, which spots leaks on the main water plumbing systemand a leak detection and fix service that uses patented leak detection technology to help the company technicians fast locate the problem and ensure the property is leak-free.
Craig unveils the magic behind LeakBot. "A water leak will continue to draw water from the mains supply and therefore cause a consistent drop in temperature vs. the ambient temperature inside the home. Once correctly installed onto the internal mains water lineinside the property, the LeakBot sensor can accurately measure air and pipe temperatures and provide a constant stream of data to LeakBot’s algorithms. If a leak in the system appears, the consistent drop in temperature is picked up by the unique sensors." This is LeakBot's patented Thermi-Q technology that takes temperature readings to detect water leaks down to 5ml per minute anywhere on the internal mains water plumbing system inside a domestic house.
LeakBot's legacy started taking shape when Hiscox, a major insurance provider, deployed LeakBot towards the 2020-end. The same year, the insurer reported remarkable ROI and attributed it to LeakBot's new-age tech. Hiscox is now actively trying to boost the number of devices installed in their customer homes during 2022, saving them the hassle and inconvenience stemming from water leakage.
LeakBot recently commissioned research into the frequency of domestic water leaks, and the findings painted an interesting picture. The data revealed that over two-thirds (67%) of surveyed homeowners experienced a damaging and costly domestic water leak in their home, with 20% having experienced three or more water leaks in houses they had lived in as adults. With each leak resulting in average repair costs of £1,074 and over half (52%) of polled property owners opting to shell out for these repairs themselves, the study revealed it could be a costly issue to overlook. "Future-proofing a home against domestic water leaks will prevent costly repairs and undue stress but can also reduce the cost of home insurance premiums," opines Craig.
In the coming years, LeakBot hopes to continue to build on this success by expanding further across the US. The opportunity for LeakBot to drive claims savings for carriers in the USA is huge with $16 billion spent every year on the escape of water damage claims, and LeakBot being the only solution with a proven model for addressing this problem at scale. "We recently announced our first successful deployment in the USA in partnership with technology-driven managing general underwriter SageSure. This deployment with Sagesure has proven that LeakBot can deliver similar results for US insurers as has been possible in the UK and Europe with our tried and tested go-to-market model where the technology and the repair services are offered free-of-charge to policyholders. Our US patent was granted in July 2020, and we have no like-for-like competitors in the USA, just like Europe," concludes Craig.
LeakBot offers proactive, personalized models that draw upon individual customer data and behaviours that can deliver bespoke policies