Aldi, ethical hackers and menopause insurance

And that’s a wrap.

New York. Singapore. Amsterdam.

It’s been a busy travel schedule for team Sønr and I have LOVED spending so much time with clients around the world.

The chats have been great.
Plans have been hatched.
A LOT of food has been eaten (and v little running has been done 😬).

For me, it’s now time to get home and invest in the family for a while.

Before diving into SøNws, a quick shout out.

Over July and August we now have (for a reason I will share another time!!) spare research and analyst capacity. If you need top quality competitor/market/trend insights, or want to identify and assess best-in-class technology providers, drop Emily and her team a line.

Right, sales pitch over. Let’s get into it.

Health. The today 

I missed this one last time.

Ifeel is an exceptional European mental health business that a couple of weeks back raised a $20m Series B.

I’ve got to know these guys over the past few weeks (in both NYC and Amsterdam) and am a big advocate for what they do.

They have a platform where users are assessed by a proprietary AI co-pilot which in turn evaluates their risk and recommends the best level of care. Their focus, as you might expect, is on preventing anything worse developing and is as applicable to mild cases as it is high-risk.

Love it.

Better still, one of their investment co-leads was FinTLV. If you share the belief we, as an industry, need to move towards prioritising prevention and preventative solutions, then it’s worth keeping tabs on FinTLV and just who these guys are putting money into.

One slightly early on in their fundraising journey you have Anterior, a company that uses AI to expedite health insurance approval for medical procedures, which has raised a $20 million Series A.

Health. The tomorrow. 

On the Seed front, one I like very much is Spike which has just raised $3.5m.

These guys have built an API tailored for digital health platforms and insurance providers, with the vision of becoming the largest health data provider.

They bring together data from disparate sources, translate it into actionable insights, and push out personalised solutions across multiple industries. Nice, right?

I reckon it’s worth keeping an eye on these guys.

And if me bringing you Spike wasn’t enough, the following company has been of particular interest to a number of our clients. And yup, they (our much loved clients) get the good stuff before I write in here. As you’d hope, right?

​​Hvild is just coming out of stealth and has created the very first menopause insurance in the world.

Working with SCOR, the team has co-created the actuarial models and risk covers, SCOR underwrites the risk according to the model and it’s fronted by Eir.

Women suffering from symptoms are able to get immediate access (digitally) to highly specialised doctors, without having to navigate around GPs, company doctors etc first. Where appropriate, Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) is offered, and delivered straight at the door at home. Plus there are also a range of other non-medication (but science based) treatments made available.   

Life – the money, partnerships and M&A

From health to life.

On the investment side Eleos, a UK-based income protection provider has raised a $4m Seed.

The capital will be used to launch more lines of insurance in the life and disability verticals and strike more distribution partnerships in the UK.

An interesting one on the partnership/distribution side. Wysh has integrated its Life Benefit product with Q2‘s Digital Banking Platform, via the Q2 Partner Accelerator Program.

Life Benefit is a micro life insurance solution that provides bank customers with up to $20,000 of free life insurance coverage, based on their deposit account balances.

And finally, M&A.

Simplicity Group Holdings has acquired Plum Life and launched Simplicity LifeLink – a life insurance platform. Simplicity LifeLink is designed to be a comprehensive solution for agents looking to manage the entire sales process, advancing everything from quoting to application to issue.

To AI. Or not to AI

There’s been a lot of AI chat over the past couple of weeks. And a lot of questioning of whether Gen AI deserves the hype. Time will tell (although my money is firmly on ‘yes’).

We’ve a mixed bag of AI-related announcements this week.

To kick things off, a company that’s getting a lot of attention at the moment – Sixfold AI. These guys leverage Gen AI to help end-to-end risk analysis.

Last week they raised a $15m Series A with the intent to expand from New York into the UK and EU.

And if you’re not sure where you’ve heard of them, they’re working with AXIS Capital, Zurich, Generali GC&C and Mosaic Insurance, have been part of the Lloyd’s Lab, and were the winner of the Zurich Innovation Championship 2024. One of those I imagine.

Another business I like very much is Paris-based Continuity, a company that uses AI and external data for P&C insurers.

They’ve secured €10m million to further develop their technology and, using AI, to address new challenges for insurers in the large risks segment. Additionally, it aims to expand its team and its presence in Europe.

And last but not least, Indico Data, a solution for automating critical intake workflows across the policy lifecycle, announced a $19m round with a strategic investment from Guidewire. Interesting.

The money will be put into enhancing its “hybrid” Discriminative and Generative AI platform helping enterprises to ‘leverage their data like never before’.

On a side note, if you are exploring AI use cases right now, you should check out our Accelerate AI programme. The long and short is we take your use cases, find the best-in-class solution providers, explore the art of the possible, and validate those using a short, 3-week PoC sprint.

You get a validated solution to a problem and a team who actively want to embrace new technologies. All in just a few weeks. Nice.

Aldi keeping it simple. And cheap 

Alright, this one I love. Not sure why.

Aldi is to sell car, home and landlord cover in Australia under a new distribution agreement with Honey Insurance – the first time the supermarket has added insurance to its offer worldwide.

The plan is for straightforward coverage with no hidden exclusions buried in the fine print. And loyal customers will not be stuck on higher legacy prices.

Very Aldi.

Looking at investment and Authentic Insurance has brought in an $11m Series A.

Another superbly interesting business. Founded in 2022, they enable SaaS platforms, associations, and other communities to establish their own captive insurance programmes. All achieved by using just one line of code. Currently the focus is on small business coverage but the plan is to move into workers’ comp and health.

Earlier stage vorteX-io has raised €2.9m to provide hydrological data for sustainable water management during droughts and floods.

The Toulouse-based startup offers businesses flood risk alerts and water resource optimisation. Backed by the European Innovation Council, vorteX-io aims to deploy 3,000 micro-stations across Europe by 2026 to model major river basins and create the first European real-time hydrological forecasting service.

And this one I thought was interesting. Carbon insurance company Oka is launching a solution to safeguard against the risk of losing Article 6 authorisation of the Paris Agreement.

From Vespas to ethical hackers 

When I lived in London I loved my Vespa.

But these were the days before Cosmo Connected. Sadly.

Amongst other connected devices, Cosmo Connected has a range of helmets that come with integrated automatic brake lights, turn signal, fall detection and safety SMS alerts.

Better still they’ve now teamed up with Allianz Partners to introduce extended insurance coverage, including liability coverage.

Right, last bit of news (which is in no way connected with the above…🤷).

YesWeHack, the global Bug Bounty and vulnerability management platform, announced a €26m Series C.

These guys mobilise a community of tens of thousands of ethical hackers to test customers’ security. And you guessed it, the money is going into AI as well as international growth.

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Right. I am finished.

Remember, do get in touch if you have any research needs. We have an amazing team with deep domain expertise and access to the world’s most comprehensive tech data. What could be better. Oh and more importantly they have bandwidth to help.

If you’d like to learn more about the Sønr offering, better understand how 50+ leading insurers around the world get value from our market intelligence platform, drop me a line.

Until next time.

Matt

Sønr is the world-leading market intelligence platform created specifically for the insurance sector. It provides you with the knowledge and tools to stay relevant, compete and plan for the future.

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