4 tech-centric startups reshaping their respective industries in big ways

While some industries seem to be inherently tech-friendly and constantly advancing in new ways, others are slower to change. Despite this, tech-centric startups are rethinking many of the “tried and true” practices of their respective industries, helping to reinvigorate stagnant areas and make them more in line with what today’s customers want. So, in no particular order, here are four tech-centric startups that are each reshaping their industries.

1. Faye

Faye Travel Insurance is a travel insurtech company that offers a digital, app-driven experience to protect travelers. Faye combines travel insurance with real-time assistance, information and financial solutions for American travelers traveling internationally or domestically.

As Elad Schaffer, co-founder and CEO of Faye Travel Insurance explained during a recent conversation, “The app experience really drives home our desire to embrace the way people actually travel today. The app lets users file a claim quickly when dealing with flight cancellations, baggage delays, medical emergencies and a lot more so they can receive speedy reimbursements for covered events, even while still in-trip. It also gives them access to 24/7 support, and can even link with their travel itinerary to provide updates and alerts. This level of connectivity and around-the-clock assistance helps make travel insurance a more meaningful part of the experience throughout the entire trip.”

Schaffer is particularly proud of the way that Faye leverages technology to help travelers proactively solve travel hiccups. “Faye travelers can overcome flight delays, seek support upon missed connections, get alerts for risks to their journey and even get notified when an incident may qualify for an instant reimbursement to their phone’s digital wallet,” he says. “Marrying travel with fintech into a convenient format on the device everyone takes with them for their trips makes solving travel problems so much easier.”

2. Artlist

In a time when fears over AI art continue to affect the creative community, Artlist proves that it is possible to embrace tech in art without casting off the human artists who make it all possible.

Artlist is primarily focused on meeting the needs of video creators who often struggle to navigate the complex, expensive and time-consuming process of legally licensing music and footage. To that end, Artlist has created a one-stop shop to provide its users with a full ecosystem of video-creation tools and assets that includes a vast library of royalty-free music, sound effects and stock footage, while also enabling access to a suite of useful templates, plugins and apps.

As part of its tech focus, Artlist provides access to these assets through a digital subscription service to ensure that the original creators still get paid. As Ira Belsky, co-founder and co-CEO of Artlist, explained in an interview, “Our content, which includes music, sound and images is produced by us in cooperation with creators from all over the world who receive royalties according to the use of their works. We invest millions of dollars a year in creating the content.”

In the near future, the disruptor plans to introduce features including an AI-powered onboarding flow that intuitively understands what tools videographers need to create powerful videos quickly, compliance tools to speed up the clearance process and data-backed insights to better understand the performance potential of the assets being created.

3. Lassie

Another insurtech brand disrupting its niche is Lassie, a tech-focused pet insurance company. Currently operating in Germany and Sweden, the core of Lassie’s products is its app, which provides a quick and easy solution for obtaining a personalized pet insurance plan in just a few minutes.

The app’s functionality is extremely robust, with noteworthy features such as unlimited video calls with a professional vet and tailored courses to help pet owners take better care of their pets (and qualify for policy discounts). The app also allows users to easily switch their plan with straightforward comparisons of pricing and available benefits of different plan levels.

In a day when many companies outsource processes, Lassie’s tech-driven approach has led the company to take the opposite route. As Hedda Baerud Olsson, CEO of Lassie explained in an interview with Inventure, “In the beginning we had growth outsourced and our claims were outsourced. But when we insourced them, we realized that there’s a lot of potential there to improve. For example, as soon as we insourced claims, we were like, okay, this process doesn’t need to take this long. So really deliberately insourcing things has both improved our economics, but also made us more efficient.”

As with Faye, the digital-first nature of Lassie’s offerings also enables fast reimbursements for approved claims, helping pet owners easily manage pet insurance needs from their smartphone.

4. Preply

Using digital tools to learn a new language isn’t completely new, but Preply takes its tech application to offer an even deeper language learning experience. Rather than relying on a set program that doesn’t have interaction with other humans, Preply has developed a network powered by human tutors, with over 32,000 tutors in the company’s network.

Preply pairs this human element with tech-based matching, helping match learners to the right tutor based on their goals, current language level and even whether they want to learn from a specific culture or accent. The tool also helps match tutors and learners based on availability.

As detailed in TechCrunch, this isn’t the only area where Preply is integrating technology. The company has also been proactive in incorporating AI as a teaching assistant to help tutors improve lesson planning and better understand how well students are learning. In this case, AI is supplementing and enhancing the power of human tutors to make them even more effective.

As each of these examples reveal, there is plenty of opportunity across a broad range of industries for meaningful tech disruptions. Such influences will undoubtedly be part of an even larger trend to make tech-centric services a more meaningful part of more industries.

VentureBeat newsroom and editorial staff were not involved in the creation of this content. 

Originally appeared on: TheSpuzz