Applications open for our Signal50 and Scale50 reports ✅
Scale50 – the top established scaleups (> Series B)
Signal50 – the top emergent startups (< Series A)
So, if you’re a founder who’s got something special – get in touch. If you’re a VC with a brilliant portfolio – put them forward. If you’re an insurtech association aiming to promote your members – give them a nudge. If you’re an insurer with a fantastic partner to celebrate… you get the picture.
APPLY HERE and help us understand just how great you/they are.
Remember, it’s free to apply and with ITC as our launch partner, the report will hit the stage in Las Vegas in October AND be promoted far and wide by us, ITC, our judges and of course to our clients. Phew.
Ok, I did promise this wasn’t just about us, so what else has been going on? Well, quite a bit as it happens and I guess reflective of a market that’s evolving.
To Initial Public Offering, and beyond!
Family home and condo insurance specialist, Slide is looking to IPO. Focussing on providing cover in Florida (and South Carolina), they’re targeting a valuation just north of $2B.
As you might imagine, the cash will help them grow their footprint in this market. What’s even more interesting is the context of ongoing retraction from other insurers.
I’m fascinated to see how their underwriting performance stacks up over time – but with investor confidence and Q1 profit growth of nearly 70%, they’re clearly getting something right. Best of luck to the team – and not least due to the very real need in this area.
If I had a dollar…
…for every time we got asked: ‘Who’s going to be the next Boltech?’ I’d have quite a few dollars.
And it looks like Sumitomo Corporation and Iberis Capital have decided to end the speculation too as they join as strategic investors in the embedded insurance experts’ $147m Series C. What’s more, Sumitomo is also launching a JV with Boltech in Asia.
It’s obviously serious money, and with a valuation of around $2.1B they’re a force in the market. And judging by my conversations with Jason Cen a couple of months ago in Tokyo, there’s no signs of slowing.
From A to B.
The investment action isn’t just confined to APAC though.
First up – let’s talk about Mexican digital motor insurance and news of Crabi’s $13.6m Series A.
With a heavily under-penetrated (but price-sensitive) auto market, the startup is focused on building the sort of modern infrastructure that will enable them to leverage all the promised advantages of AI and data science. Naturally, customers can benefit too from the ensuing great service and keen pricing. Love it.
Next is European news with German-based Baobab Insurance, and their €12m Series A.
Their cyber insurance and risk mitigation offerings, include cyber insurance (obvs), an e-crime insurance product and an IT liability policy for IT, software, tech, and telcos. What’s more, they’ve already helped customers save more than €10m.
We all know the stats – this is a space that isn’t going to get any quieter, so congrats all round.
Speaking of cyber, Guardz has also been in on the action, albeit with a different go-to-market strategy.
The Israel-based cyber security startup has raised a very healthy $56m Series B to help SMEs tackle the rise in cyber threats.
They’re largely targeting the (massive) managed service provider market, with an offering that includes both platform and insurance via the likes of industry stalwarts Telivy, Cowbell and Coalition.
We’ll skip (merrily) now from Israel to the US and from cyber to claims.
Reserv is a NYC-based TPA, which has seen pretty steady growth since their launch in 2022. Now boasting a team of 350 in the US and UK, they also support more than 80 MGAs and 20 carriers with a P&C focussed offering.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, they’ve announced a $25m Series B, which will help a mix of expansion and diversification. They’ve stated it’ll be used to enhance their claims automation models, grow the number of integrations they can handle, but also fuel the development of non-claims modules to their solution. High fives all round.
Finally, another Sønr Forward50 alumni has announced investment. Hooray!
This time it’s US-based Voxel with a $44m Series… you guessed it – B.
And with good reason. With nearly 2.8m workers losing their lives in accidents there’s a big market. And with 147% year-over-year revenue growth and 202% net revenue retention, this seems to be translating into demand (and customer satisfaction!).
If you haven’t heard of them, check them out. Their AI-powered tech plugs into existing security cameras to detect unsafe behaviours and potential hazards. As a result, they enable supervisors and safety managers to take immediate action and prevent accidents before they happen.
Great stuff team.
Right, it’s not just the investment side of things that caught our eye this week – with a load of partnership news going on as well
Cyber, cyber, everywhere.
Chubb is back at it again with a new partnership with cyber security specialist, SafeWeb. The dynamic duo are aiming to support the massive, but often seriously underprotected SME market. How will this happen? Integration of Chubb products into the SafeWeb platform to keep things nice and simple for customers. Nice.
Blackpoint Cyber is a provider of managed detection and response (MDR) services. They’ve announced a new partnership with cyber insurance marketplace UKON. Like Guardz, they’re supporting MSPs in their cyber risk management efforts – to evaluate risk, access insurance coverage and enhance security outcomes for their clients.
This is all good, but I do wonder when we’re going to hear from the world of Quantum as there’s been a real ramp up in this part of the market in the first part of 2025.
Embedded travel goodness.
Arch has also been in the news this week, with their Annual Multi-Trip Travel Insurance being made available to travelers via agents using the bolt platform. Right product, right time, and now on a platform with 100+ carriers means it’s increasingly a pretty safe bet.
The best, worst experience.
I still have flashbacks from our last house move. And not just because after a week of moving in I headed off to the US just as the joy of chickenpox hit the Ferguson house, leaving my (hero) wife to deal with it all…
Oops.
While I’m not sure their solution can solve that use case, Matic and Floify are at least trying their best to make the process easier. Matic’s digital platform provides a home (and auto) insurance marketplace and partners with over 100 lenders, servicers, and banks that collectively process 20% of home loans in the U.S. Their new strategic partnership with mortgage automation platform, Floify will see them embed home insurance into the digital loan experience for Floify’s network of lenders and brokers.
Anything that removes complexity and limits my reliance on others in this process is a win in my eyes. Great stuff.
A Markel hat-trick
Markel has been in the news not once, not twice, but thrice.
1. They’ve announced a collaboration with Insurate – an MGA offering workers’ compensation insurance to small and mid-sized US industrial businesses.
2. They’ve also been busy with the launch of a shiny new product – InsurtechRisk+, which is designed to support insurtech businesses. It’s a four-part offering, including: insurance services and technology liability; D&O liability; crime; and cyber liability and loss cover.
3. While not brand new, Cyberwrite have announced an expansion of their partnership with Markel Europe. They’ll be offering their technology to provide underwriters with real-time insights into… cyber exposure with all the benefits to loss ratios and speed and confidence in decision making that you’d expect.
Right, the clock is ticking now – both in terms of deadlines and the fact the sun is shining and tomorrow is due to be classic British summertime – aka torrential rain, high winds, and more rain. So I/we all need to get out and enjoy it.
Woof.
Admittedly not my finest effort from a headline, but slightly more impressive is Lassie’s latest announcement on the state of their business. The Sweden-based pet insurer is now boasting 160,000 customers and €50m in GWP. Pretty decent on its own, but especially in comparison with other startup competitors.
Crunch.
A fresh release from Optalitix, which helps insurers to monitor the way their pricing data is being crunched. The new feature is called Model Monitoring and, in a Ronseal stylee, it does what it says on the tin – enabling insurers to proactively monitor model health, detect errors and anomalies, and optimise model performance.
Over and out.
OK, that’s it.
Thanks again, have a great weekend, and if you notice any errors/anomalies/or something that doesn’t work it’s definitely down to Friday 13th, not me. 🤥
