Nimeshh Patel: Automotive brands want to work with businesses that have ‘intermediary layers’

As automotive brands look to keep the customer experience “sacrosanct”, they are becoming more attracted to working with businesses that have “intermediary layers”.

That is according to Wrisk chief executive Nimeshh Patel, who tells Insurance Times that vehicle brands and manufacturers “potentially have a little bit more choice and control over the insurance value chain by working with someone like us”.

Wrisk is an insurtech that has a data driven platform designed to support automotive brands to deliver embedded and branded insurance experiences across the full vehicle ownership lifecycle.

The platform covers quote and bind to renewal and claims, all integrated within a digital journey.

“If you really think about an automotive manufacturer, [their] job is to sell more cars, then sell more finance products,” Patel says.

“So, if they can use insurance as a lubricant, that enables them to sell more of the other two pieces upstream.

“But, in the long run, I also see [automotive manufacturers] potentially taking more control over the insurance value chain themselves, given the data advantage they may perceive to have in the future.

“We at Wrisk are an enabler of that.

”It means that the technical complexity required at Wrisk in order for this to happen will require continued focus from us to try and solve those little problems [vehicle manufacturers] are facing on a day to day basis.”

Attractiveness

Wrisk currently works with multiple car manufacturers in the UK, powering insurance programmes for brands such as BMW, Mini, Volvo, Mercedes-Benz and Jaguar Land Rover.

These relationships contributed to triple digit revenue growth in 2024, with Wrisk reporting that more than 100,000 policies were written last year via its platform.

Meanwhile, in May 2025, the insurtech secured a multiyear deal with car finance firm Stellantis Financial Services UK – this agreement sees Wrisk provide direct to consumer insurance services across 12 Stellantis brands, including Abarth, Alfa Romeo, Citroën, DS Automobiles, Fiat, Fiat Professional, Jeep, Leapmotor, Maserati, Peugeot, Spoticar and Vauxhall.

Patel says: “We’ve got quite a significant stable of partners at this point – but there’s still lots of opportunity, even just in the UK. We’ll potentially announce another two or three manufacturers coming onto the ticket in the next six months or so.”

Patel believes that more firms in the vehicle sector want to partner with businesses like Wrisk, that provide embedded insurance propositions, because they offer partners ”a bit more choice and control over the insurance value chain”.

He continues: “They see a path where they want to keep the whole customer experience sacrosanct. So, when a customer comes in and interacts with BMW insurance or Volvo insurance, [for example], it feels like that all the way through, whether they’re making a change [or] calling the customer support centre.

“So, end to end, what businesses like Wrisk do is give a customer that insurance experience.”

Funding round ambitions

Patel is well placed to determine the insurance models car manufacturers might find attractive as Wrisk successfully secured £12m in series B funding in July 2025. The round was co-led by Mundi Ventures and Opera Tech Ventures, the venture arm of BNP Paribas.

Patel has ringfenced these funds to accelerate the insurtech’s expansion across Europe, deepen engagement with Wrisk’s existing partners and support new partner acquisition. The chief executive expects to have live propositions across the Channel by mid-2026.

He says: “We effectively want to extend what we’ve done in the UK to other markets across Europe.

“That’s really the primary driver [in securing the funding], but the second thing for us is while we offer intermediary services and technology services, therein lies a real opportunity in the marketplace whereby you can capture new signals.

“You think about cars – they are computers on wheels. And there is the potential to ingest more signals to actually inform rating and really try and transform the way motor insurance products are sold as a whole.

“Some of this will be for us to really build our data services element. So, we put some of the investment to that as well.”