Building an insurance app for the 21st century

When we launched Cuvva in 2015, we were the first company ever to sell motor insurance via an app. That seems pretty absurd considering mobile apps have been around for years, but it required rethinking - from the ground up - about how the insurance process works.

Previously, to get a quote, you needed to spend 5-10 minutes on each website filling out forms. It was a lengthy, slow-moving process, which required you to input a lot of personal data, before you were able to get an idea of how much a policy would cost you. Some drivers even found themselves spending longer on arranging short-term car insurance, than the length of the actual policy.

Our aim was to make this process as slick and efficient as possible. To achieve this we have streamlined the process within the app, allowing for easy input of personal information and purchase. A Cuvva user can be insured in under 5 minutes - from sign up, to point of purchase - an enormous change in the typical timeframe for car insurance.

The motor insurance industry also typically has poor communication between customer and insurer/insurance-broker. Often, a driver is left wondering why they are unable to be insured, or why the policy is priced as it is. Through in-app customer support, we allow for transparency between us and our users. Our cops team provide quick replies to resolve any issues that a user may be facing.

Although the app appears simplistic from a user perspective, it is far more complex on the backend; composed of many different elements, which work in unison to make policy purchase possible.

MyLicence

The MyLicence service is a service that allows us to look up DVLA driving licence data. We use this service to download a customer's licence details so they don't have to enter the information themselves.

Motor Insurance Database (MID)

The MID is the central record of all insured vehicles in the UK - it is used by the police and the DVLA to enforce motor insurance laws. We upload a customer's policy into the MID to show that they are insured to drive a specific vehicle at a specific time.

Vehicle data

To get a quote on a vehicle, a user only needs to enter a registration plate. We then go to our third-party data provider, who has the vehicle information (VRM and VIN) which we then produce a quote from.

Intercom

Intercom is the system that we use to communicate with our users, all customer support takes place here. We do not take queries over the phone, as the efficiency and ease of communication is much better online - see our previous blog post which covers this.

CUE data

The Claims and Underwriting Exchange (CUE) is the source of incident information that we use to collect previous incidents. The information we source from the CUE must match up with those declared by a user.

Stripe

Stripe is our payment processor, they handle all card transactions and securely store card information.

As you can see, there is a multitude of services that we utilize within the app to allow for the most efficient, and straightforward, purchase of short-term insurance. If you have any other questions you can message us via our in-app chat. 😊