Insurance & Insurtech Investment News – April 2022

Europe

Insoore prepped and primed for growth

Italian insurance company Insoore secured €5.5m in a recent funding round to boost its video and photograph-based claim management offering. Founded in 2017, the fundraising was led by start-up to mid-market VC specialist Proximity Capital. Founder Antonio Assereto, commented that the “transaction completes Insoore’s consolidation and preparation process, which will lead the company into a new phase where teams and investors will be focused on a strong revenue growth.”

Source: Tech EU 

Funding secured for expat insurer Feather

Germany based Feather (formally Popsure), landed €3.8m of additional funding in an early April seed round. Feather specialises in simplifying insurance for expats, and has worked with over 30,000 customers since its founding in 2018. Founded by ex McKinsey executive Rob Schumacher, the company attracted interest from several prominent individuals, including Wise founder, Taavet Hinrikus. On the investment, Hinrikus commented, “I was really impressed with how far the team has come without funding, and am excited to see another industry be made transparent and digital. There are many parallels to wise, and the potential is there to build an even bigger company.”

Source: Tech EU 

Peppercorn’s journey: From Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) relief to a £1.8m investment

Automated self-serve platform Peppercorn is looking to transform the car insurance market in the UK. South Manchester based EHE Capital provided a reported £1.8m investment to support it entering the UK private car insurance market. Peppercorn made the news in May 2021 when it became the first insurtech to benefit from EIS relief approval, following an update to HMRC guidance towards insurtechs qualifying for both Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS) and EIS relief.

Source: EHE Capital

North America

TheGuarantors successfully completes series B

TheGuarantors, a real estate rental industry insurtech company, successfully completed Series B funding totalling $15m. TheGuarantors offers an innovative way for renters to pay their holding deposit and lease guarantees. The capital raise was led by Portage Ventures, the VC arm of investment firm Sagard. With $3.3bn AUM USD Portage has three FinTech-focused funds, with the most recent fund closing a capital raising late last year. In March 2021 Portage also invested in Acheel, a Paris, France-based Insurtech focused on selling non-life insurance products.

Source: The Real Deal

Influential VC Aquiline supports insurePay’s acquisition of AcordPay

US based InsurePay announced it has secured additional series B funding to support the acquisition of AcordPay. The deal allows InsurePay to offer a full suite of insurance payment solutions for collecting premiums, settling with markets, and managing claims and refunds. The deal was supported by Aquiline Capital Partners. With $8.7bn in AUM, Aquiline is without doubt, one of the most influential venture capitalists to be partnering with insurtech companies and has already made 27 investments across the insurtech and fintech markets.

Source: PR News Wire

Impression Ventures commits $64m to 4^th FinTech fund

Fintech late seed and early series specialist Impression Ventures has announced an additional $64 million raise for its 4^th Fintech fund. With near to $70m in committed capital, founder Christian Lassonde and fellow Managing Partner Maor Amar have had striking success in recent years, with four of their portfolio investments listed in the Top 100 Canadian Tech Companies. Goose travel insurance remains one of the most downloaded apps in the Canadian finance category, and has now expanded its offerings in the United States.

Source: PR News Wire

Fin Capital backs Relativity6 to the tune of $5.25m

B2B FinTech asset manager Fin Capital has recently led the $5.25 million funding of US insurtech Relativity6. With a full life-cycle investing approach, the fund currently has over $1B in AUM. Fin also announced it was expanding into the UK, with Henry Cashin brought on from Klarna in December to head up the firm’s European operations.

Source. Fin Capital

Listen and Chingona Ventures take the lead on Sigo Seguros funding

Listen and Chingona Ventures have jointly led a $5.4m seeding funding round for Sigo Seguros. Specialising in equitable insurance products for Latinx and immigrant communities, the company founded in 2019 has built a loyal footprint in Texas. Chicago based Listen Ventures is led by the charismatic Rick Desai, and raised just shy of $100m in January. A consumer focused specialist, the investment demonstrates the broader appeal of insurtechs to generalist investors, when they are able to deploy solutions at scale that enhance the welfare of whole communities.

Source: FinSMEs

Asia Pacific

Introducing the all-new Tokio Marine Future Fund

Tokio Marine, the Tokyo-headquartered insurance giant, has launched a new global venture fund to take advantage of emerging advanced technologies and new business models that are disrupting the global insurance industry. The Tokio Marine Future Fund will be based in the US, and has been seeded with an initial $42m and will look to deploy up to $3m at a time. The fund has a broad generalist mandate, and will hunt for opportunities not only in insurtech, but across fintech and a range of adjacent sectors. Given current market valuations, we would expect additional funding requirements should they look to take a multitude of companies from seed to series A. 

Source: Insurance Business Mag

Health-tech competition heats up in India

Elevation Capital has once again supported Loop Health fundraising efforts in India. Loop is a health distribution insurtech start-up looking to reinvent the relationship between primary care and health insurance within India. The insurtech secured $25m in funding from many of their existing Series A investors. The company has over 130,000 customers, with operations in Pune, Mumbai, and Bengaluru. The segment is heating up with Secure Now, Plum, Onsurity, Nova Insurance and PazCare all fighting for market leadership. 

Source: The Hindu Business Line

Middle East & Africa

Tech Mahindra supports Surance.io’s expansion to the tune of $4m

Israeli Surance.io operates an end-to-end cyber insurtech solution, and has announced an initial $4m investment from Indian multinational, Tech Mahindra go support its international expansion. Tech Mahindra has already bet big earlier this year on the insurance sector when it acquired 100% of Com Tec Co IT for €310m, and through its co-investments in SaaS based digital customer engagement platform SWFT.

Source: PR Newswire