This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on September 6, 2017

PETALING JAYA: Pixelated Sdn Bhd or Katsana, a local telematics company focusing on connected vehicles and usage-based insurance (UBI), has teamed up with several insurance companies to help boost adoption of UBI in Malaysia.

Katsana is funded by Axiata Group Bhd via the the latter’s Axiata Digital Innovation Fund.

Yesterday, Katsana signed two memorandums of understanding (MoUs) for the tie-up. The first was with Allianz Malaysia Bhd and Axiata Business Services Sdn Bhd, while the second was with Etiqa Insurance Bhd, Etiqa Takaful Bhd and Axiata Business Services Sdn Bhd.

Under the collaboration, Katsana said it will leverage on its experience in telematics and big data to provide a UBI platform to Allianz Malaysia, Etiqa Insurance, and Etiqa Takaful to develop UBI products for their customers.

In return, the parties involved will work together with Katsana to improve its DriveMark telematics app, as a means to collect driving behaviour data, and encourage app users to improve their driving behaviour. 

Launched in July, DriveMark allows drivers to choose which insurance companies they would like when they want to purchase an insurance. Meanwhile, insurance companies that partner with Katsana get a reasonable idea of drivers’ behaviour via DriveMark scores to allow them to develop new UBI insurance products.

“The data, which represents a person’s driving habits, whether good or bad, determines the insurance premium he or she needs to pay. Once we have the analytics, we analyse them and give the vehicle owner the insurance premium quotation,” Allianz chief executive officer (CEO) Zakri Khir explained.

The launch of DriveMark was timely following the liberalisation of motor insurance by Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) beginning in July.

Prior to the policy change, premiums were calculated based on a fixed tariff structure; now it will be determined by individual insurers and takaful operators.

“With DriveMark, the data lets us see how we fare against other drivers. Look at it as ‘self-notification’, whereby our own scores help us know where and how to improve ourselves as road users,” Katsana managing director and co-founder Syed Ahmad Fuqaha Syed Agil told The Edge Financial Daily.

DriveMark is now available for free on the App Store (for iOS users) and Google Play Store (for Android users).