Innovation intelligence brief
Innovation intelligence brief
Generali Group will offer household insurance with smart home technology provided by Alphabet owned Nest Labs to actively protect customers’ homes. The partnership will start in Germany, where Generali will create a compelling offer for the customers of CosmosDirekt, the leading direct insurer in the country. The product will be available from end of February 2017.
What became of it
Completed · Medium confidence · Last verified 2026-10-17
As catalogued
Partnership between Generali and Alphabet's Nest Labs: from February 2017, CosmosDirekt household-insurance customers in Germany taking the 'Comfort' tariff with smart device received a 50% discount on the Nest Protect smoke/CO detector, linking contents insurance with connected loss prevention.
2026 reality
The Nest offer no longer exists: CosmosDirekt's current household insurance page does not mention Nest, Google or a device discount; smart home appears only as assistance services (e.g. a smart-home emergency centre, help after a smoke-detector false alarm) within the optional Home Assistance add-on.
The Nest device-discount offer was dropped without a public announcement. In September 2020 Generali Germany instead partnered with the smart-home retailer Tink (with Europ Assistance), including a Tink smart-home shop for CosmosDirekt customers via the customer portal; smart-home elements now appear as assistance services rather than a single-vendor device discount.
an early insurer-big-tech IoT partnership; the market, including Generali itself, moved from single-vendor device discounts toward multi-vendor shops and assistance services built around smart-home alerts.
Third taxonomy
REVIEW · Verified the Generali-Nest announcement (1 Feb 2017, CosmosDirekt offer from end of February 2017), the Tink/Europ Assistance partnership (cash-online, 13 Sep 2020) and the absence of any Nest offer on CosmosDirekt's current household page; no changes needed.
Documented evidence
Press release
Research interpretation
Classification paths, as catalogued, connect this example to the original insurance digitalization research models.