We’re delighted to announce our newest strategic investment in handdii’s $3M Seed round led by Brick & Mortar Ventures. Nine Four Ventures cannot be more excited to partner with Christie, Kathryn, and the entire handdii team to build a category-defining claims management software platform for the insurance industry. Here is a bit more about the business, opportunity and why we invested.
handdii is a claims management software platform for insurance companies that streamlines the claims process, from initiation through contractor selection and work completion. handdii leverages an intuitive platform to structure data requests and standardize workflows between insurance companies, contractors, and policyholders, with the goal of helping insurance companies transition from cumbersome, manual, offline, and bespoke processes, to a cloud-based system of record. This improves transparency and reduces the traditional costs, time and overhead required to service a claim. The platform is a distinct improvement for insurers and policyholders, who get a better experience from handdii approved contractors and gain visibility into the claims process, status, and next steps, as well as for contractors, who are able to land more jobs without any hassle and get paid faster upon completion.
handdii was born out of Christie and Kathryn’s previous roles at leading Australian insurance and construction companies, where they experienced the pain of manual, offline, and bespoke workflows between insurers, contractors, and policyholders first-hand. Insurance companies struggled with small claims processing and a lack of sufficient contractor coverage, homeowners suffered from a complex workflow, and contractors endured high membership fees and low conversion leads. These challenges were expensive (in time and cost) and made it difficult to provide a consistent customer experience, which negatively impacted policyholder renewal rates. Christie and Kathryn knew there had to be a better way, so they left their jobs and founded handdii.
After meeting Christie and Kathryn, it immediately became clear that the business was addressing an overlooked and underestimated pain point in a global trillion-dollar market. Every insurance company we talked to was experiencing the same problem of managing small claims and customers *loved* the product. The feedback on the team and product was unanimously positive and spoke volumes about handdii’s clear value proposition and ROI. The strong mutual connection between Nine Four’s thesis in the space, handdii’s target market and overlap with Nine Four’s LP base and broader network made an investment a no-brainer after getting to know Christie and Kathryn.
Insurance plays a vital role in selling to and through – and protecting – the built world. As the secular shift from Baby Boomer to Millennial property ownership continues, the needs and preferences of policyholders will evolve and place new pressure on incumbents and startups to execute faster and more digitally, without compromising security and compliance. This led to our investment in Steadily (a digitally-native landlord insurance company) and continued our focus on the evolution of the space that companies such as handdii are driving. handdii offers infrastructure technology that standardizes the back office “plumbing” of claims management, allowing insurance companies to focus on their core policyholder facing products that levels up servicing quality and improves subsequent renewal rates.
It’s worth noting just how important an insurance company’s relationships with their policyholders are. Happy policyholders can work with providers for years and rarely shop for alternatives but that is becoming less common in a commoditized insurance market with growing feature parity. As a result, it is increasingly important for both incumbent and upstart providers to invest in the technologies that will increase their ability to better service policyholders and work with contractors. This presents an exciting opportunity for a company like handdii to create value for all stakeholders involved with a claim by tying new structured data back to outcomes. As handdii continues to productize its claims management software platform and layer on additional products and services it will be fun to watch how the business evolves over time.
Congrats again to Christie, Kathryn and the entire team. We’re just getting started!
