Start-ups set to accelerate Belron

Belron’s global initiative, Drive: the startup accelerator, has selected Sorry as a Service as the business to receive its £100,000 investment.

The initiative which was run in partnership with investor and innovation organisation L Marks was designed to fast-track the growth of startups and improve Belron operations and its approach to delivering an exceptional customer experience.

Four startups – Sorry as a Service, Atta, Smartcalling and TheThings.io – were selected to join the accelerator and partnered with Belron Business Units across the globe for an unparalleled opportunity to trial their products and solutions.

During the 12 week programme Sorry as a Service were mentored and deeply immersed in the customer and digital team at Autoglass.  As a result, Sorry as a Service are now developing a platform to provide easy access to information about each customer’s experience and interaction with Autoglass. With the ultimate goal of delighting customers with a personal touch, Autoglass is exploring how to leverage the new partnership and implement the Sorry as a Service platform.

Also during the programme, Atta worked with Belron Canada to develop a gamification app to increase employee engagement – the pilot still has a few weeks to run; SmartCalling worked predominantly with Carglass Germany to integrate its solution into the Carglass Germany Android app allowing customers who have the app to be delivered a customised call screen; and TheThings.io worked with the Carglass Spain team to create a prototype of an in-car display device that uses sensors to capture certain information from the vehicle and can be used to alert the owner when things go wrong.

Following a successful day of demonstrations in July from the four startups taking part, Belron will continue working with all of the companies and, together with L Marks, will invest £100,000 in Sorry as a Service.

Nick Burton, head of digital and innovative technology at Belron, said, ‘Each start-up has brought a different type of solution that could really make a difference to our business. We’re thrilled to be investing in Sorry as a Service and can really see the potential of their approach and the value it will add to Autoglass.’