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Hellas Direct acquires the largest road-assistance company in Cyprus

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Hellas Direct, a next-generation insurance company, has today announced the acquisition of Rescueline, the largest road-assistance company in Cyprus, catering to some of the island’s leading insurance companies and more than 300,000 consumers. Rescueline has been active in serving motor vehicles in Cyprus since 1990, offering high-quality services to premier car importers, insurance carriers, banks and their clients.

This is not the first time that an insurance company invests in a road-assistance company. A number of the biggest insurance companies in Europe, such as AXA, Allianz and Generali, have pursued similar vertically-integrated business strategies, opening up their affiliated road-assistance subsidiaries to competitor insurance companies. The road-assistance sector has witnessed a strong influx of technology investment and strong ties with insurance carriers as the mobility and housing ecosystems are beginning to take-off across the world.

In Greece, Hellas Direct already offers a new-age road-assistance service in partnership with Mapfre with instant access to a proprietary technology platform integrating more than 1,200 repair shops, a real-time garage-booking service and an emergency-financing offering. Other innovations include on-spot coffee delivery for drivers and their families as well as a complimentary taxi service. Over the next few months, Rescueline will introduce comparable technology innovations to the Cyprus market, offering insurance companies and their clients an enriched, seamless, digital claims experience.

The acquisition comes just months after Hellas Direct entered the market with an innovative home-insurance offering, in partnership with Swiss Re, one of the world’s leading reinsurers, and Revolut, Europe’s fastest growing challenger bank. The Rescueline acquisition is part of Hellas Direct’s long-term strategy to strengthen its foothold in ancillary services and to play a more active role in the broader mobility ecosystem across Greece, Cyprus and the region

George Trantas, the managing director of Rescueline will remain at the company’s helm. Hellas Direct will not be looking to change the governance of the organisation upon completion of the transaction.

“Rescueline has a long history of servicing insurance companies and their clients in Cyprus. Its market dominance over the past 30 years is testament to George’s calibre, professionalism and drive. We are thrilled to be teaming up with George and the Rescueline team, as we look to expand our footprint into the Cyprus mobility ecosystem. We are also looking forward to working with the government and local regulators to implement market-wide claims-management solutions we successfully launched in Greece”, said Emilios Markou, Executive Director of Hellas Direct.

“We are particularly excited to be partnering up with one of the best road-assistance companies we have come across in Greece and Cyprus. We have a lot to learn from George’s experience and we look forward to combining our respective strengths in offering the end-consumer an even higher level of service. Over the next five years, we plan to invest more than EUR 5m in road-assistance technology, making Rescueline a truly digital market leader”, added Alexis Pantazis, Executive Director.

“Hellas Direct is a company I have always admired for its new way of thinking, its obsession on customer service and its strong technology focus. I am excited to be part of the Hellas Direct family and I look forward to continuing offering the highest quality service to Rescueline’s insurance clients and the end consumer,” noted George Trantas, Managing Director of Rescueline.

Hellas Direct is a digital-first, full-stack insurance company, empowered by cutting-edge technology and artificial intelligence. The company is backed by a roster of all-star investors, which include Portag3 Ventures, IFC (a member of the World Bank), Endeavor Catalyst, former Goldman Sachs economist Lord O’Neill and private equity veteran Jon Moulton. Modelling itself after Amazon, Hellas Direct aims to disrupt the insurance value chain by adopting an extreme focus on operational excellence.

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