Honcker Adds Auto Insurance Options to Growing List of App Services

Startup Honcker has added 10 insurers to its leasing app to create a holistic mobile car-buying process, Chief Executive Nathan Hecht told AFN.

“We’re trying to make the entire process — not just the transaction of the lease itself — simple, without [consumers] having to walk into a dealership,” Hecht said. “Now we’re looking at the larger picture. It started with just the lease, we added F&I products, now auto insurance.”

Insurance providers on the app include State Farm, Liberty Mutual, and Progressive. The feature, which launched last week, prompts consumers to check out insurance options via the app. The consumer’s information — including DMV, credit, and vehicle records — is then automatically funneled to a call center to generate insurance quotes.

“Everything the customer would normally need for an insurance quote is prepopulated in the system at our third-party call center,” Hecht said. “The customer is given quotes from three national carriers. If the consumer chooses one of the three, it will bind on the spot, and the insurance card is sent to the Honcker app.”

Customers are paired with providers based on where they live. Honcker’s insurance service is available in 13 of the 15 states in which the company operates; it has yet to roll out in New York and New Jersey. Since the Honcker app launched in 2016, it has added about 30,000 new users each month, Hecht said.

Initially, 5% to 10% of consumers on Honcker’s platform will get auto insurance through the app, Hecht predicted.

Next on Honcker’s drawing board are an AI-enabled in-app chat bot feature — slated to be available by yearend — and car-sharing and vehicle maintenance capabilities for which Hecht declined to reveal a specific timeline.