附近上门

Home insurance startup bought home maintenance startup , its first acquisition, the companies announced Thursday.

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Hippo sells home insurance, using technology to find issues in homes before they become large, expensive problems. The idea has found wide backing, with the company raising in total funding to date, according to 附近上门.

To take a more proactive approach to home insurance, Hippo conducted a variety of pilot programs, including using Sheltr, to spot issues in homes before they became larger problems, according to, the company鈥檚 VP of Growth Initiatives.

鈥淎s we were doing that over the last couple of years, the Sheltr team really stood out not only in the quality of technology, as well as the operational sort of sophistication that they brought to their business, but more so it was their alignment with Hippo on customers, value of services,鈥� Blanaru said in an interview with 附近上门 News.

Sheltr helps homeowners with maintaining their properties by doing home checkups, writing up home 鈥渉ealth summaries,鈥� and connecting homeowners with professionals for maintenance services if there鈥檚 ever a breakdown, according to its website.

Hippo wasn鈥檛 looking to make acquisitions, but after working with the Sheltr team, bringing them in-house was a 鈥渘o brainer,鈥� Blanaru said.

Hippo isn鈥檛 disclosing how much it paid for Sheltr, which was founded earlier this year and has about in seed funding, according to 附近上门. The company isn鈥檛 ruling out more acquisitions in the future, but they will be a rarity and only happen if it makes sense, Blanaru said.

鈥淲e鈥檝e been working (with Hippo) for much of Sheltr鈥檚 life, obviously we鈥檙e a really young company,鈥� Sheltr CEO Andrew Wynn said. 鈥淏ut as we partnered with a lot of players in the space, it became really apparent that Hippo鈥檚 focus on customers and its proactive approach to insurance wasn鈥檛 skin deep.鈥�

Sheltr has eight employees, who will join Hippo鈥檚 approximately 200-person workforce.

Hippo is trying to move away from the model where insurers only interact with customers when they pay a bill or submit a claim, Blanaru said. The company is trying to create more of a relationship with customers by taking a proactive approach to home insurance, rather than just react when something happens. For example, Hippo takes aerial images of homes to see if there is any discoloration or problems with a roof and sends customers 鈥渟mart home kits鈥� that will alert them to issues like water leaks.

鈥淔or us it鈥檚 really leading the charge on a broader trend of insurance being the entry point to support and enable homeowners on a broader level,鈥� Blanaru said.

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