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Flock offers on-demand insurance for drone pilots
by Startacus Admin
The drone industry might have started off as something of a fad, but where people might have expected interest in it to die down, it has only become stronger and stronger.
In the US alone, just under 2.5m personal drones were sold in 2016. And while the individual hobbyist is finding entertainment in drones, businesses and entrepreneurs are finding more and more applications for them, cutting down on man-hours, saving money, making things simpler, and opening up avenues that would have been either impossible or hugely expensive before.
Commercial drones are used for mapping, inspections, photography, crop maintenance, delivery, to aid search and rescue… The list goes on.
As usage rises and applications for drones increase, however, so do the dangers. Injury to the operator and others, damage to the drone and property, even collisions with other aircraft - these are all things that happen more frequently than people might realise. And where there is risk of damage and injury, there is the need for insurance.
The problem is getting inexpensive insurance. Drone coverage is difficult, as there is no historical data to draw from and the range of applications and possibilities are too great. Insurers simply do not have insight into what drone operators are doing with their drones, and operators cannot identify all the potential risks for each flight (not to mention the fact that each flight could be completely different to the last).
VC backed Flock Cover is looking to plug the gap between the sluggishness and inflexibility of traditional insurance companies and the new, versatile world of drones. 
The first important step for Flock is to offer on-demand insurance. The second is that the cover is highly personalised. The app collects real-time data about you as a pilot, your drone, your location, nearby hazards, and environmental factors.
Algorithms are put to work on this data to calculate the risk factor of your flight and offer you a premium. These risks are broken down so that you understand them, and hazards are displayed on a map for safety.
With insurance premiums starting at only £5, and with the assurance of Allianz as Flock’s underwriter, the ability of this startup to give power back to drone operators not only mirrors the flexibility and freedom of drone flight, but it can save them thousands of pounds.
And we’d be willing to bet the number of operators who take their drones out without insurance will drop sharply too. Flock - We like it a lot.
If you like Drone related startups, you might also want to read about Flyte an innovative platform which is on a mission to provide “seamless flight planning for commercial drone projects” or our previous article on drone startups to watch out for.
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Published on: 29th October 2017
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