Insurance claims management solutions provider Crawford & Company has bought an 85-percent membership interest in WeGoLook, an on-demand field inspection and verification services provider whose offering includes automotive.

Boards of directors at both companies have approved the $36.125 million deal announced Tuesday, which is subject to certain conditions. Closing is expected to be in January.

With WeGoLook being an online/mobile collaborative economy platform, Crawford plans to use its investment in the company to “to revolutionize, automate and expedite the claim handling process by utilizing a large mobile workforce for automotive and property inspections,” it said in a news release.

“I am very proud of the company that our team has built, as WeGoLook is among the fastest growing and most innovative gig economy companies in the U.S.,” Robin Smith, chief executive officer of WeGoLook, said in a news release.

“We are excited about our new partnership as Crawford's global brand recognition and client relationships will be invaluable as we grow our business,” she continued. “I could not be more excited with what the future holds, and I remain committed to the combined company."

Harsha Agadi, Crawford’s president and CEO, added: “I am very pleased to welcome WeGoLook's employees, contractors, and customers to Crawford given the tremendous potential that I see as we combine WeGoLook's innovative technology with Crawford's global reach and client relationships.

“WeGoLook handles anything from automotive and property inspections to support the insurance industry as well as a broad range of general commerce transactions and verification of internet-based purchases,” Agadi said. “Their cost-effective services will allow Crawford to unlock the large, underserved market for high frequency claims, reduce claim handling fees, and help guard against fraud.”

In conjunction with this move, the company has also formed Crawford Innovative Ventures as an investment arm for partnerships and acquisitions, Agadi said, with WeGoLook being the first purchase.

Ken Fraser is Crawford’s executive vice president and chief strategy and development officer and will lead Crawford Innovative Ventures.

“WeGoLook is a forward thinking, technological company that dispatches over 30,000 'Lookers®' to collect or verify information at the click of a button. A company like this gives us the mobility and manpower to serve as your feet on the street, delivering real-time efficient customized solutions needed to make informed decisions,” Fraser said.

“WeGoLook fits perfectly into our global strategy of utilizing technology to become faster and more efficient as we strive to better serve our clients and grow our company,” he said. “To that end, we plan to expand this business around the world, using our worldwide footprint and strong global property & casualty and TPA client relationships.”

Agadi added: “We are thrilled to be working with WeGoLook as the combination of our two companies will infuse Crawford with fresh ideas and expertise, as well as add an attractive brand with a business model for the future. Importantly, WGL will play a critical role in making Crawford grow at a much faster rate.”

More details: WeGoLook services 

Automotive represents about 60 percent of the business at WeGoLook, Smith – the CEO – told Auto Remarketing during an interview at last month’s Used Car Week conference.

But it’s not all cars. Commercial property inspections, for instance, has the second biggest slice of WeGoLook’s business. Others include everything from heavy equipment and document signing/notarization to  scene inspections, and evidence pickup, and more.

Think of them as an “on-demand labor pool” for various tasks, where enterprise clients have access to a “flexible workforce” that can help supplement their own, Smith said. Or it may be that the client doesn’t have employees to take care of tasks and can bring WeGoLook in to help.

In autos specifically, folks could certainly use them for inspecting cars, but also things like executing finance documents, perhaps in a language other than English.

Smith said the company is also working with an automaker as part of a concierge service. That type of work would allow for in-home/office courtesy vehicle delivery and pick-up for cars needing service, for instance.

Or new-car delivery.

“They call us the Uber of inspections,” Smith said. “But we do a lot more than that, as well. Once we get into working with a client, they’re able to use across different segments within their organization … so we displace four to five, sometimes multiple, vendors for a client, because we can take any kind of schema and put it into our platform.”

Work with auctions? 

Inspections, of course, are a big part of the auction business, which was a major slice of Used Car Week with the National Remarketing Conference and National Auto Auction Association Convention joining forces this year.

WeGoLook isn’t aiming to compete with the big inspection providers in that space, Smith said, but rather serve as a supplementary workforce partners for some of the “one-off” inspections that those larger inspection companies might need assistance taking care of. 

“We currently don’t do a lot of work with auctions, because they typically will have their own inspectors internally,” she said. “But what we can do is, we can go out to the location of the asset or the vehicle, wherever it is, and catalogue that vehicle and perform the inspection off-site, even before it gets to the auction.”

The company is looking to work with OEMs and conducting fleet and off-lease inspections, finance documents, picking up keys and license plate tags, and so forth, Smith said.  

One partnership it already established is with eBay Motors, which was announced in March. 

As part of that deal, users of eBay Motors  have the inspection services of WeGoLook at their disposal. Through WeGoLook, eBay Motors can offer on-site inspections on any car, motorcycle, RV, powersport vehicle or boat in the U.S. Buyers can also use WeGoLook to verity the online listings.
 
And as for folks selling on eBay Motors, the third-party services of WeGoLook can be a way for them to drive buyer confidence.  

At Used Car Week, Smith said they were looking to expand the partnership to Canada and the U.K., and move into the business industrial portion of eBay, as well.