⚡ How this Start-Up is Using Data to Re-Write the Rules of Car Insurance

Genius marketing hacks, Authentic Start-Up Stories, Fantastic Start-Up opportunities and so much more in this week's issue of Innovators Uncensored!

Morning Innovators ⚡ In less than 5 minutes, we’ll cover…

🥳 The best funding opportunities, events and jobs in the Start-Up world this week
📰 This week’s biggest news stories in the Start-Up world
🏎 How is this Start-Up using data to re-write the rules of car insurance?
🤔 Is this marketing stunt just tricking your customers?
📹 A tool that helps you records your screen in seconds

 Last weeks most clicked link was this link taking you through to SH&P’s pitch and protect competition, with the champion getting £10,000 towards their patent and IP work!

Happy hustling,

Rich

🎤 Opportunities + Events

🌍 Daphni have just raised a new €200m ClimateTech fund and plans to invest in ‘Scientist Entrepreneurs’ - You can apply here!

☀️ Daybreak Ventures have raised a new $33m fund to invest in Pre-Seed and Seed consumer and enterprise Tech companies - get in touch here!

😇 Arāya Ventures have raised a £20m fund to invest in Pre-Seed and Seed across Health, FinTech, Commerce and Future of Work - send your pitch here!

🔐 SH&P have launched their Pitch and Protect competition, with the champions getting £10,000 of Trademark and Patent work - you can apply here!

We now have a community of thousands of Start-Ups and Founders, here are the hottest Start-Up job opportunities from the Innovators Uncensored community on our very own Start-Ups Job Board!

💼 Start-Up Jobs

🏭 Klarna pips Spotify to become Europe’s top Founder factory Sifted

🕵️ a16z and Benchmark-backed 11x has been claiming customers it doesn’t have. TechCrunch

👋 Michael Seibel is leaving Y-Combinator. TechCrunch

🏪 London the ‘natural destination’ for an IPO says ClearScore boss UKTN

Carta is a platform that helps people manage equity, build businesses and invest in the companies of tomorrow. Our mission is to unlock the power of equity ownership for more people in more places. Carta is trusted by more than 40,000 companies, over 8,000 investment funds and a million employees for cap table management, venture capital solutions and more. In the UK, we support founders who are raising money through SEIS/EIS, helping with Advance Assurance, round modelling and more. To find out more, take a look at their website, or get in touch with [email protected].

This week, Lipton have caused big controversy with their latest marketing stunt, and for good reason!

Lipton’s best selling flavour is their Peach flavoured Iced Tea, so when they announced that they were going to stop making it, their loyal customers were heartbroken. In their heartbreak, they rushed out to the stores in their masses to bulk buy as much Peach iced tea as possible ahead of the stop date.

After everyone had gone out and bought loads of Peach iced tea, Lipton decided to announce that it was an April fools joke (In March), and that they weren’t actually getting rid of it. Meaning people went out and paid plenty of money to get as much of this stuff as possible for no reason.

I’m not a fan of this marketing stunt at all, what do you think? Vote below 👇

Are you a fan of this marketing stunt?

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Each week we highlight our favourite tools - either something we’ve been using in our businesses, or tools that our innovator community have recommended.

Supercut is beautiful, simple and fast. Just record your screen, share instantly and look professional...with a little help from AI.

The Driverly Story: Using Data to Rewrite the Rules of Car Insurance

Building a Business on Data, Trust, and a Whole Lot of Conviction

Car insurance is a mess. Customers aren’t happy, insurers are struggling to make the right margins, and the industry is drowning in inefficiencies. Armin saw the cracks firsthand and knew there had to be a better way. That’s where Driverly comes in, a company using data intelligence to help insurers price risk more accurately and boost profitability. Instead of launching another B2C insurance brand, Armin and his team pivoted to solving the deeper industry-wide issue, making sure insurers had the tools they actually needed to fix the system from the inside out.

Founding a Business with People Who Actually Get It

Armin didn’t go looking for just any Co-Founders, he built Driverly with people he knew, trusted, and had worked with before. He looked at the three pillars of the business: customers, data, and technology. He had the customer side covered, so he brought in an expert in data underwriting he’d worked closely with at Admiral. For the tech side, he turned to his best friend since primary school - someone he’d known for over 30 years and had been through thick and thin with. The result? A team that wasn’t just highly skilled, but rock-solid in trust and chemistry. When you’re launching something this ambitious, those relationships matter more than anything.

The First Product That Never Launched (and Why That Was a Good Thing)

Driverly’s first product never saw the light of day. Initially, the plan was to launch a consumer-facing insurance product, but after testing the market, it became clear that the bigger opportunity lay elsewhere. Instead of clinging to an idea that wasn’t quite right, Armin and his team pivoted. They spoke to industry insiders, worked closely with insurers, and realised that their data technology was far more valuable as a B2B tool. That flexibility, falling in love with the problem, not the product, turned out to be their biggest advantage.

The First Customer Came from One Simple Rule: Relationships Are Everything

When it comes to landing early customers, nothing beats a strong network. Driverly’s first client came from a personal connection, a CEO of a Spanish insurance company that Armin had worked with before. The pitch was simple: Driverly’s tech could transform the way they selected and priced risk. The company took a chance, and after seeing the proof of concept work, they quickly moved to a paid contract. That first deal wasn’t just a win, it was the validation that Driverly’s data-driven approach was exactly what the industry needed.

How They Got Investors to Back an Idea (Before It Was Even a Business)

Driverly raised its first round with nothing but a vision and a strong belief in what they were building. Their first investor? One of Armin’s best friends. It wasn’t about fancy pitch decks or over-engineered financial models - it was about trust. He knew Armin, believed in his ability to execute, and backed him from day one. The second investor was a former colleague, the CFO of a major insurance company, who immediately saw the potential of Driverly’s solution. These weren’t just financial backers; they were people who understood the problem and believed that Driverly was the company to fix it.

Hiring the First Employee (Without Big Corporate Salaries to Offer)

Start-Ups don’t have the luxury of throwing big money at talent, so they have to sell the vision. When Driverly needed someone to handle risk and compliance, Armin once again tapped into his network. He reached out to a former colleague who had deep regulatory experience. The challenge? Convincing him to leave a stable corporate life for an early-stage Start-Up. The sell was clear: Driverly was solving an industry-wide problem, and he could be part of that transformation. It worked, and his expertise helped secure critical regulatory permissions, laying the foundation for the business to scale.

Next week I’ll be highlighting another awesome Start-Up, as well as sharing all the usuals including funding opportunities, Start-Up news, plus plenty of awesome tips, tricks and tools.

P.S. Connect with me on LinkedIn…