Last week, we shared the headline piece in our annual magazine. Co-founder and CUO Ian Bartholomew explained the journey that led to our award-winning sensor, from considering the best parametric trigger for flooding, to establishing the best technology for measurement. You can read the full article here. This week, it’s two-for-one as we’re sharing the next two articles from our magazine. We delve into how our smart sensor works – both in theory, and in practice.

What makes the FloodFlash sensor smart?

FloodFlash uses three core pieces of technology – our pricing algorithm, our cloud platform, and our IoT sensor. Head of Hardware and former Dyson engineer Pete Codling designed the FloodFlash sensor alongside co-founders Adam and Ian to specifically facilitate parametric flood policies. The sensor measures flooding at every policy and is the key to our rapid payouts.

The sensor has several features that make it the perfect parametric trigger measurement for flood insurance:

1. High resolution flood measurement: the sensor uses sound waves to measure how much water there is in the sensor, giving us a millimetre accurate view of flood depth at the client’s property.
2. Mobile connectivity: the sensor sends the depth readings to FloodFlash HQ via the mobile networks. If there’s flooding at a sensor, we’ll get the data in seconds.
3. 10-year life: ultra-low power consumption and battery means the sensor doesn’t require any external power and lasts up to 10-years.
4. Storm-proof: the sensor is tested in storm and flood conditions, so we know it is up to the task of protecting any property from catastrophic flooding.
5. Memory chip: if the networks go down, the sensor doesn’t stop recording. It stores all readings on a memory chip. When the networks recover, the sensor sends us all the historical data so we don’t miss a single reading.
6. Fraud-resistant: live data monitoring feeds into a robust fraud prevention process.

How do FloodFlash claims work?

Our mission is to help more people recover from catastrophe using parametric insurance. One of
the reasons businesses don’t survive a flood is the delay in receiving their claim. A longer claim results in prolonged business interruption which can be devastating to any business. What’s more, many businesses don’t have the ability to pay for clean-up, replacement stock and other flooding costs before their claim is paid.

We pride ourselves on rapid payouts. We paid most of our clients within 48 hours of water hitting their trigger depth. In fact, between February 2020 and October 2022, we paid 67% of our claims within 48 hours. With a quick claim, recovery can begin faster. This has several positive knock-on effects. Clients get a head-start on booking recovery services, whether that’s dehumidifiers, skips or anything in between.

A quick payout also means secondary impacts like mould and damp are less likely to set in – reducing the total cost of recovery.

What do brokers and clients say about FloodFlash claims?

We pride ourselves on our outstanding claims service. But don’t just take it from us – here’s what some of our FloodFlash brokers and clients have had to say after a claim:

Our client was very happy. Our claims team was very happy. I was very happy.

Colin M., FloodFlash broker

FloodFlash was truly exceptional.

Joe C, FloodFlash broker

When we needed their support, they were there. I could not believe how quickly [the payout] happened.

Alan F., FloodFlash customer

It’s the best and easiest [claim] by far.

Ian P., FloodFlash broker and customer

According to Business in the Community, 40% of businesses don’t reopen after a flood. We’re proud that 100% of the businesses who’ve claimed with us remain open.

If you want to get involved with our annual campaign, get in touch. We can provide FloodFlash materials in your branding to share internally and with your clients. Follow us on LinkedIn for the latest from the magazine. You can also sign up to our newsletter to hear more about FloodFlash every month.