BURLINGTON, Vt. – DealerPolicy, a leading insurance marketplace for automotive retail, has raised $30 million in Series B funding led by 3L Capital and Hudson Structured Capital Management Ltd. – doing its re/insurance business as HSCM Bermuda Management Company. The company will use the funding to accelerate the development of its market-leading insurance platform for the auto industry and to expand its team, including the appointment of two new executives, Wayne Pastore as President and Chief Operating Officer and Tara Kasica as Senior Vice President of Sales.
As car buying continues to evolve with the world around us, dealers are prioritizing fully digital, streamlined and connected experiences.
DealerPolicy introduced its integrated insurance solution to the automotive retail industry in early 2016 with the vision of providing a more convenient, transparent, and connected car-buying experience. Adding a choice-based insurance solution at the point of sale yields considerable savings, more buying power and a substantially improved customer experience, and for the dealer, superior margins on the transaction. Today, the company's wholly owned agency, DealerPolicy Insurance, and its network of over 800 dealers, has generated over $13 million dollars in annualized insurance savings and over $60 million in increased buying power for its customers. DealerPolicy Insurance customers who save get an average of $64 per month back into their budget, which is often reinvested into other vehicle protection products offered by the dealer. For that reason, dealers in the DealerPolicy network report an average increase of 34 percent in back-end gross profit.
"As car buying continues to evolve with the world around us, dealers are prioritizing fully digital, streamlined and connected experiences. Modern insurance solutions such as DealerPolicy's FastPass™, dovetail nicely into the process and give car-buyers the value and convenience they've come to expect," says Travis Fitzgerald, CEO of DealerPolicy. "DealerPolicy has conducted extensive research into car-buyer sentiments, including access to insurance as part of the process. The results are undeniable – nearly 8 out of 10 shoppers believe that comparing insurance at the point of sale during the car-buying process substantially improves the experience. With an ever-expanding value proposition to dealers, insurance carriers and customers, we are prepared to continue investing in growth."
The company's next phase of growth will be supported by the addition of Pastore, who brings deep expertise in business operations and digital retailing, and Kasica, a seasoned leader in both automotive F&I and personal insurance. Both joined the company recently.
"I admire the early success the DealerPolicy team has had and the meaningful value its platform provides for both shoppers and dealers," says Pastore, who previously served as Vice President and General Manager of Dealer.com. Pastore also held numerous leadership positions throughout Cox Automotive and DealerTrack. "With the shopper's continued desire to complete more of the purchasing experience digitally, I look forward to leveraging my experience to help accelerate the company's growth as dealers continue to demand fully integrated and digital retailing services."
"Spending much of my career in various insurance and automotive leadership roles, I immediately recognized the value of DealerPolicy's offering to the market, and dealerships in particular," says Kasica, who joins the company from Allstate, where she was responsible for overseeing countrywide deployment, production, retention, and growth of dealership owned insurance agencies. "I am thrilled to be joining this incredible team and to use my experience at the intersection of P&C insurance and automotive retail to further support the company's expansion plans."
