NewTech Friday: Verna – Shaking up Iceland’s car insurance industry

06/10/2023Interview

Verna was born out of a need for change in the historically conservative and stagnant motor insurance market in Iceland. Its CEO, Fridrik Thor Snorrason, takes us on a journey from the inception of Verna to its groundbreaking solutions and vision for a greener, more customer-centric future.


What led to the creation of Verna?

The motor insurance market in Iceland has historically been conservative and stagnant, with cover on offer ambiguous, pricing unfair and transparency limited. Consumers are assigned to a ‘class’ where all within the same ‘class’ are charged the same rate, regardless of driving performance. There is a weak link between performance and price, and the incentive to improve driving performance is very limited. With new technology and increased market awareness, there is a growing demand by drivers to get rewarded for good driving performance. In other words, consumers are desperate for change. 

Verna was created to address this need for drastic change. Our mission is to develop smart insurance solutions that incentivize cooperation, risk reduction and improved well-being of customers. In April 2022, we launched the Verna Digital Motor Insurance product in the Icelandic market for private vehicles. The product has been well received by Icelandic drivers and our market share is now approaching 3% after less than a year and a half in the market, which is probably a world record! The customer base is growing by 7-25% per month and forecasts assume a market share of around 3.5% by year-end 2023.

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