Zurich Insurance Group has strengthened its digital strategy with a strategic investment in Ominimo, a fast-rising InsurTech startup leveraging artificial intelligence to transform motor insurance.
Headquartered in Switzerland, Zurich is one of the world’s leading insurance providers. Its latest move marks a deeper commitment to innovation and positions the company to compete more aggressively in the evolving digital insurance landscape—particularly within the retail segment, according to Insurance Business Mag.
The collaboration enables Zurich to expand its footprint in Europe and adopt emerging AI-powered risk assessment models designed to modernize and future-proof insurance offerings.
Ominimo, founded by a team of former consultants and mathematicians, has quickly established itself as a disruptive force in the European car insurance market. Operating as a managing general agent (MGA), Ominimo sells Zurich-underwritten policies while retaining full control over product development and customer engagement—an arrangement that allows for rapid innovation and agility.
At the heart of Ominimo’s offering is a proprietary machine learning platform that analyzes hundreds of variables in real-time, including vehicle characteristics and urban infrastructure, to deliver highly granular and accurate pricing models. This data-centric approach has enabled Ominimo to secure a 7% share of Hungary’s motor insurance market within just one year, issuing over 300,000 policies and reaching profitability.
Zurich’s investment goes beyond capital. Its German subsidiary, DA Direkt, has entered into a distribution agreement with Ominimo to launch co-branded motor insurance products across Europe. The rollout will begin in Poland this spring, followed by launches in Sweden and the Netherlands, with plans to expand into more than ten additional markets.
While financial specifics remain undisclosed, sources close to the deal indicate Zurich has acquired a 5% equity stake in Ominimo for €10 million, giving the startup a valuation of approximately €200 million.
This investment supports Zurich’s broader strategic goals, including bolstering its presence in digital retail insurance and targeting a core return on equity of over 23% by 2027. It also complements the group’s other digital-first initiatives, such as partnerships with UK-based Onsi and Canadian cybersecurity-focused BOXX.
Ominimo CEO Dusan Komar, formerly of McKinsey, founded the company to address inefficiencies and outdated practices in traditional insurance. “No brilliant software engineer or data scientist dreams of working for an insurance company,” Komar said, highlighting the industry’s longstanding struggle to attract top-tier technical talent.
Komar, along with co-founders Dennis Weinbender and Laslo Horvath, set out to change this perception. They offer competitive compensation and intellectual freedom to draw elite professionals into insurance innovation. Ominimo’s data science team includes eight medallists from international mathematics and physics Olympiads—individuals now using their expertise to radically improve risk modeling.
Komar illustrated the power of their approach: “It’s interesting, for instance, to see that data shows a very strong correlation between the length of the car and the frequency of accidents during parking.”
Amid a challenging climate for InsurTech firms—with companies like WeFox facing financial difficulties—Ominimo remains focused on performance-driven outcomes rather than flashy design. “There is a difference between claiming to do data science in terms of risk assessment, and actually doing it,” Komar emphasized.
Whether Ominimo can sustain its momentum as it scales across Europe remains to be seen. Yet with Zurich’s backing, distribution capabilities, and strategic alignment, the startup appears well-positioned to disrupt traditional insurance models and grow profitably in the years ahead.
