CAMBRIDGE, Mass. & SOFIA, Bulgaria--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Insurify, the AI-powered insurance comparison platform, has opened its first international office in Sofia, Bulgaria, the digital capital and vibrant tech hub of Eastern Europe. In an effort to provide the best fully integrated customer experience, Insurify is also growing its in-house insurance agency. This is the most recent development for the fast-growing company, which achieved 2.5x year-over-year growth and increased its headcount by over 300% in 2020 and by 44% in Q1.
The new office in Sofia is home to an experienced team of 15 engineers and data scientists who are uniquely skilled in building high-growth marketplaces. The team was previously a part of one of the largest travel metasearch engines, Skyscanner, which closed down its operations in Sofia due to COVID-19’s impact on travel.
The Sofia office will be led by Director of Engineering Konstantin Halachev, Ph.D, former Engineering Manager at Skyscanner. His team will help drive Insurify’s mission to be the most trusted and comprehensive platform for insurance, leveraging their collective wealth of experience in engineering-at-scale for online meta search engines.
“Our new office in Bulgaria marks a pivotal growth milestone as we continue to enhance our auto, home and life insurance verticals,” said Snejina Zacharia, CEO of Insurify. “We’re excited to bring on such a great team of engineers and data scientists who have a proven record in building machine learning recommendations for hyper-growth platforms. The team is uniquely qualified to help Insurify enhance its understanding of customer shopping behavior. A core focus for the team will be to scale Insurify’s machine learning, personalization and recommendation technology across multiple insurance verticals and channels.”
In addition to the new office in Bulgaria, Insurify is also establishing a team of in-house agents, doubling down on its commitment to delivering a tailored insurance comparison experience online and over the phone. The company recently hired 20 agents, with plans to continue hiring more over the course of the year.
Insurify tapped former Answer Financial (part of the Allstate corporation) executive, Shawn Powers, as VP of Sales and Operations to lead the in-house agency operations. Powers brings over 15 years of experience running one of the largest service centers in America. For Powers, the in-house agency allows customers greater choice of interaction.
“Insurify is now integrating agents into our virtual process, allowing customers to work with our licensed agents from beginning to end and have an omni-channel choice of interaction,” Powers said. “We are here to provide customers with the best insurance shopping experience, and now we provide multiple ways for customers to take advantage of it.”
The in-house agents will be an available resource for customers at every step of their insurance buying journey. “A customer may start online, have a couple questions, engage with one of our professional agents and then return online to complete their purchase,” Powers said. “Conversely a customer may want professional guidance and answers throughout the process.”
Together, Insurify’s new office in Bulgaria and team of in-house agents signal continued momentum for the fast-growing company, which increased its headcount in Cambridge by over 300% in 2020 and continues to expand even more rapidly in 2021.
This announcement also comes on the heels of Insurify’s industry-first partnership with Toyota Insurance Management Solutions (TIMS), providing Toyota customers with a seamless way to compare and buy car insurance policies online using Insurify’s data-driven recommendations and tailored purchase experience.
For more information on Insurify, visit insurify.com.
About Insurify
Based in Cambridge, MA, Insurify is a one-stop-shop comparison platform for car, home, and life insurance, helping consumers save time and money on their insurance coverage. With over $170B of insurance coverage purchased and over four million satisfied customers, Insurify has achieved 20x revenue growth since 2016 and won several insurance industry awards, including: Forbes Fintech 50 2020, The Digital Insurer’s “North America InsurTech Startup of 2019,” and FinTech Global’s “2019’s Most Innovative InsurTech Companies,”ACORD’s 2018 “Top 10 Insurance Leaders and Insurance Disruptor Awards.”
