Founded 2020, world’s largest Series A 2021

Jeff Bezos is heading in to space on the 20^th July.
Richard Branson on the 11^th July.

What a world we live in.

This past weekend I flew to Edinburgh. I’m not sure there were any billionaires on my Easyjet flight.

I headed up to see the Lions rugby and it was great to see our client Royal London’s branding all over Murrayfield.

Better still, I hadn’t realised they are working with the Lions to explore whether a Lions women’s team could be establish ed.

Well done Royal London.

The future of insurance isn’t what you think

After finally getting my head back into work on Monday, I wrote the foreword for the Future 50 Americas we’re publishing with Insurtech Series A Insights in a couple of weeks.

It’s the first in a global series A and will sit alongside the Insurtech 100.

My prediction, which I led with, is that insurance will see more change in the next 5-10 years than anything we’ve witnessed in the past few hundred.

Whilst it comes across as the perfect clickbait, it’s something I genuinely believe.

What’s more is I don’t believe this change will be led by insurers. Nor by Insurtechs.

There’s a world of new competition changing the market dynamics and fundamentally re-architecting the product of protection as we know it. This is as true in health and life as it is in P&C.

And so it begs the question of how to respond?

We know from other industries a ‘watch and wait’ strategy all but guarantees obsolescence.

So we come back to the need for innovation. In particular the need to partner or acquire with emergent innovation. These are the two, tried and tested, routes to rapid innovation.

The need to scout for emergent and established Insurtech Series A (and broader) has never been more critical.

The good news is we can help. Sønr is the #1 platform for this globally.

Sales pitch over. Nearly.

If you’re interested in where the market is heading, recognise the need to scout for startups (we track 2m+) or would like to know more about how we help the likes of Allianz, Bupa, Munich Re, Tokio Marine etc, get in touch.

Better still, check it out and take a free trial.

Right, let’s kick off with some market news.

UKs Insurtech scene continues to build

Starting locally and great to see London’s hyperexponential (hx) has closed an $18m round.

Founded by former actuaries, Hx helps to build, deploy and update insurance pricing models. What’s really interesting, and tying in with the above, is how hx wants to support new entrants to the market.

In the telehealth space the dental startup Basma has secured a £3m Insurtech Series A.
Amongst other things the plan is to use the investment to grow a network of partner dental clinics across the Gulf Cooperation Council in order to reach more countries and cities.

Another raise was Caura’s new $4.2m round. If you drive a car, you’re based in the UK and don’t yet have their app, you should. It’s seriously handy.

The startup enables car owners to get insurance as well as pay for city charges, tolls, and taxes. All centrally via the app.

One of the investors was InMotion, the CVC arm of Jaguar Land Rover. From the press release it looks like part of their plan is to integrate Caura into their infotainment systems – enabling key features to be accessible directly through the vehicle. Nice.

Whilst talking JLR I’ve been driving a much-loved Discovery for the past couple of years and, as many of us are, thinking about swapping over to an electric vehicle. What I didn’t know is they’re talking about releasing them in 2024. Nowhere near soon enough for my liking.

And then I found these guys – https://rivian.com/r1s

If anyone is reading this from the US and already has one, I’d love to know what you think of it. I’m totally hooked albeit have to wait another year until they’re in the UK.

Back to it.

Last UK raise – the House of InsurTech (not to be confused with Generali’s HIT) has pulled in a £400k seed round. Their SaaS quote and buy platform, Insurforce, allows insurers, MGAs and brokers to spin up new products quickly and easily.

Europe continues to attract big bucks

Stepping over to our friends in Europe and France’s Hoggo, a platform for managing group insurance and HR, has raised €11m in Insurtech Series A funding.

The startup – which works with over 40 insurers and offers comparison services in more than 3,000 group insurance offerings – has seen its policyholder numbers grow 3x this year.

In Germany, freight tech startup Forto, has raised another $240m. Now sitting in the $1bn+ club these guys manage shipping containers from origin to destination. Insurance being one of the key additional services. The new investment designed to expand its trade shipments between China and Europe.

Over to Spain and distribution platform Insurama has closed a $6m Seed round. Founded in 2018, the team of 25 offers a hub of digital products aimed at distributing insurance digitally.

Singaporean insurtech lands the largest Series A to date

Keeping with the world tour of investment activity and to Singapore we go.

Bolttech, which is present in 14 countries across Asia, North America and Europe has raised $180m, valuing it at more than $1bn.

What’s different about this one is it’s the largest ever Series A for an Insurtech. And if you’re wondering why you haven’t heard of them til recently, that’s because they only launched last year.

Amazing and testament to how quickly this market can change.

The company’s online platform serves as a matchmaker between insurance companies, allowing them to offer customers products that may not be in their area of specialisation. A really interesting model. It’s often much cheaper to sell to a current client than acquire a new one.

And as we move to a world of embedded insurance, it’s great to see they’re pitching to non-insurance companies so they too can offer insurance products to customers.

In India, Fairfax-backed digital insurance company Digit Insurance is raising $200m. This funding round values Digit at a whopping $3.5bn.

Selling health, car, bike, and travel insurance, Digit grew GWP by 70% during April-May this year, versus 17% for the general insurance industry.

Cypriot full-stack insurer Hellas Direct has announced a new €32m raise. The cash will help them with their master plan to dominate the mobility sector across five European markets.

Also mobility related, but jumping to the other side of the work, it was great to see Ubco, the New Zealand-based electric utility bike startup, raise $10m to help fund its expansion into the US and up its commercial services business.

Maybe I just need to swap out the car entirely. The lad in one pannier, the dog in the other. They’re pretty nice bikes.

The last non-US investment to report on is Advisr, an Australia-based independent broker platform, which has raised a non-disclosed seed round.

Advisr targets insurance brokers and product manufacturers, and provides a digital marketing platform to reach and connect with new business customers.

Open innovation and partnerships still on the rise

Let’s again kick off with a European focus.

LEVL, the UK reseller of Geotab telematics devices, is partnering with London-based InsurTech Flock to reward fleet operators with lower premiums.

This will be achieved by connecting a vehicle’s telematic solution with motor policies offered by Flock. Pricing will be based on the number of trips fleets make and the risks they take.

Staying with telematics and Ford is set to team up with London-based insurance broker By Miles.

By Miles will be the first insurance provider announced in the U.K. to use Ford’s connected vehicle data and, as you might expect, the new pay-as-you-drive proposition aims to save drivers money on their premium.

The last from the UK is home insurer Urban Jungle which has partnered with Wakam. Together they’re targeting young homeowners with a fresh new buildings and content insurance product.

Into Europe and French insurance firm AG2R LA MONDIALE and InsurTech Akur8 have announced a collaboration to transform AG2R LA MONDIALE’s health insurance pricing process.

The move highlights Akur8’s increasing relevance in the health insurance sector.

And finally Swiss Re’s i ptiQ has partnered with ImmoScout24, Germany’s leading real estate online platform.

The new product is designed to protect from uncertainties arising from new tenancy agreements and the consequential loss of rent for private landlords.

Tune in for an African extravaganza

I’m a big fan of what’s happening on the Insurtech front in Africa at the moment. As such I’ve got to know Tunde Salako, the founder of Africa InsurTech Rising, pretty well.

His team have partnered up with Insurtech Connect and will be holding a demo day on the 13^th July.

Throughout the day they’ll showcase innovative insurance-technology that will shape, reshape and unlock new markets across Africa.

If it’s your thing, get yourself registered at https://bit.ly/AttentDemoDay. Should be a good one.

—

A slightly shorter one today.

I’m off for a second jab before joining a client’s Board session. How that gets scheduled in for a Friday afternoon I don’t know.

Keep well. Do reach out if you’d like to connect.

Matt

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Founded 2020, world’s largest Series A 2021