AutoCloudPro Raises New Funding as AI Cutting Costs for Auto Insurance

Technology Author: Sirui Zhou Sep 07, 2019 01:48 PM (GMT+8)

AutocloudPro, auto parts supply chain management platform, secures tens of millions of dollars. With the data foundation, AI is set to make significant savings for the auto insurance industry by streamlining and speeding up such processes.

Auto Engine. Image Credit: Pexels.

AutocloudPro (车通云), an auto parts supply chain management platform, has secured tens of millions of dollars in its Series C+ round of funding.  

AutocloudPro is a Chinese startup that connects auto parts supplier with customers, among whom the auto insurance companies consist of about 80%. It has over 35 insurance clients, including PICC(中国人保), CPIC (中国太平洋保险), Cathy Life Insurance and others. To date, over 70,000 factories and car dealers have cooperated with AutocloudPro. 

The funding will go towards three projects: 1) enhancing the data warehouse, 2) developing and launching an AI damage assessment system, 3) geographic expansion, targeting 50 to 60 new cities. 

Data is the core competency for AutocloudPro. It continuously develops its auto parts database, currently reaching 700 million SKUs with  20 million of high-frequency trading orders.  

With the data foundation, AI is set to make significant savings for the auto insurance industry by streamlining and speeding up such processes. According to a report from the Alibaba Cloud Research Center, there were around 55.4 million auto claims in 2017. Over 60% of auto damage claims consist of small exterior collisions; replacing human assessors with AI could trim costs by multiple billions of yuan. 

Ant Financial has been using image recognition since 2017 in its vehicle damage assessment product Dingsunbao (定损宝). Once a car owner scans the damaged part using the smartphone camera, the AI product can generate loss assessment results immediately. The accuracy rate already exceeds 98%.  

Dingsunbao has helped the insurance industry to cut over CNY 2 billion on claims, representing 750,000 hours of labor effort that would otherwise have to be spent, according to Yin Ming, president of the Insurance Business Unit of Ant Financial, speaking to Alizila, the news hub for Alibaba Group.