Helvetia Schweiz engaged as pilot customer by drion

Three experienced entrepreneurs recently launched the new fintech company drion.ai in Zurich. The start-up focuses on using cutting-edge machine learning technology such as neural networks that allow SMEs to access liquidity and insurance protection within the space of just a few minutes. Following a successful pilot phase at the end of 2019, the insurance firm Helvetia Switzerland has been using drion technology since March 2020 to process transactions in its guarantee and bond business. According to a press release, drion.ai is now conducting initial projects for two further customers.

Previously, financial services for SMEs including loans, guarantees, factoring and liability insurance for damage to property were verified on the basis of a manual analysis of the annual accounts. This process could take days or even weeks to complete. However, the technology developed by the Swiss start-up can fully automate this process, thereby reducing it to a matter of minutes.

This helped Helvetia to take an important step forwards in terms of analysis processes, according to Tobias Struchen, Head of Commercial Insurance Non-Life Switzerland: “It was impressive that the model prediction of the neural network was clearly superior compared to classical methods. In addition, we benefit from better data quality and a cleanly structured database”.

Co-founder and CEO of drion, Michael Bischof, sees “huge potential both in Switzerland and abroad” in this solution.