ITC Europe is back with another investment round up from some of the biggest and most exciting insurtech deals from November. We were all very happy to see a bit of an uptick in activity as I’m sure all of us have been following the downward trend for a few months now. The biggest beneficiaries this month were San Francisco and health and wellness platforms who got the most cash with Europe and North America (as per usual) seeing the most investment activity.
Global Headlines
Europe
- Insurtech Cobee gets big Series A to take advantage of fast-growing wellbeing sector
- ifeel also gets in on wellbeing game with cash injection
- A new challenger in the pet insurance game gets funding to protect your furry friends
- Claims automation player omni:us extends Series A round
- More automation for financial companies as Taktile gets boost
- Send Technology gets £9 million from Breega and Mercia
- Sustainability still a big talking point for Claims Carbon
- Helios Underwriting receives £12.5 million
North America
- Employees can look on the Brightside as company announces new fundraising round
- Gen Z and millennials have reasons to get involved in insurance with Surround
- Sensible gets help enabling underwriters to focus on the high-IQ tasks
- Time to shine a light on LGBTQIA+ families as Daylight raises $15 million
- Anzen raises big seed round
- SMEs can get Glow up as company raises $22.5 million
- CoverGo gets $15 million to expand into Middle East
Asia Pacific
- Embedded insurance powerhouse Cover Genius raises Series D
Middle East & Africa
- Carteav raises round to help autonomous fleets
Europe
Insurtech Cobee gets big Series A to take advantage of fast-growing wellbeing sector
Madrid’s Cobee, an employee benefits platform has raised €40 million in a Series A round led by Octopus Ventures and Notion Capital. Having tripled its business in the space of one year, CEO Borja Aranguren says the company will now look to expand into new markets as well as solidify its position in Spain and Portugal, adding, “For us, it’s very important that investors understand our market and share the vision of what we want to build. Both Octopus and Notion had previously considered other employee benefits startups in Europe, but could not get convinced.”
Source: Fintech Global
ifeel also gets in on wellbeing game with cash injection
Nauta Capital has led a Series A round worth €5.5 million for ifeel, another wellbeing platform aimed at helping employees gain access to therapy. Amir Kaplan, CEO and Co-Founder said, “The health crisis and new blended employment models create a high need for managers to support remote employees and distant customers. We are proud of the success we achieved with leading global partners and are looking forward to leading the transition in the relationships created between companies and their employees and customers.”
Source: Startups Real
A new challenger in the pet insurance game gets funding to protect your furry friends
Napo, a UK-based pet insurtech challenger, has raised a £15 million Series A round led by DN Capital. Having insured over 35,000 pets since launching in December 2021, the company also offers 24/7 vet consultations, dental coverage, aid finding missing pets and third-party liability cover. Jean-Phillipe Doumeng, the CEO who co-founded the insurtech, said, “Our mental model is fundamentally different from traditional pet insurance. We are aligning all stakeholders to look in the same direction by helping people to take better care of their pets.”
Source: Insurance Business Mag
Claims automation player omni:us extends Series A round
omni:us, a leading insurtech in the claims automation space has closed a €12 million Series A extension round with Württembergische Versicherung taking the lead. “This Series A+ builds on an exceptional year for omni:us. We were able to add leading insurance companies to our customer base in Europe, launch key feature enhancements to our AIaaS (Artificial Intelligence-as-a-Service) offering – the omni:us Digital Claims Adjuster – and at the same time strengthen our team with outstanding talent. We are particularly excited about the participation of W&W subsidiary Württembergische Versicherung and the strong commitment of our existing investors,” says Martin Micko, CCO & co-founder of omni:us.
Source: Business Wire
More automation for financial companies as Taktile gets boost
Index Ventures and Tiger Global have teamed up to lead a $20 million Series A round for Taktile, a start-up that helps companies in the financial industry automate decision flows and help the launch products faster. “Today, too many businesses rely on automated decisions that they rarely revisit, which causes them to overlook critical risks, respond to market changes too late, and thus leave money on the table”, said Maik Taro Wehmeyer, Co-Founder and CEO of Taktile. “By allowing businesses to adjust their decision flows in a quick, easy and data-driven way, we help them optimise decision accuracy, reduce risk, and significantly improve their margins. Combined with our off-the-shelf data integrations across the globe, this not only helps our customers improve their unit economics but also enables them to launch new lending and insurance products fast.”
Source: Business Wire
Send Technology gets £9 million from Breega and Mercia
Automation SaaS platform Send has secured a Series A round worth £9 million to streamline processes for underwriters. Led by Breega and Mercia, the start-up will now look to boost its growth in the UK and US markets. Send co-founder and CEO Andy Moss said: “We believe we have the most advanced underwriting workbench on the market and want to retain our first-mover advantage. To do this, we need to scale up, both in the markets in which we currently operate in, and in new ones. We want to enable more partner-led growth and delivery as well as bring in exceptional and diverse talent. Talent that will help shape and lead not just customer growth but our product portfolio as well.
Source: MGAA
Sustainability still a big talking point for Claims Carbon
Another player in the emerging sustainability space, Claims Carbon, has secured €1.1 million in seed funding in a round led by Vaens and supported by Florian Graillot’s Astorya.vc who said, “While insurers are leading the fight against climate change with the ‘net-zero initiative’, Claims Carbon is among few SaaS solutions enabling the industry to track carbon emissions starting with the claims handling process. We are excited to back the founders’ journey to scale across Europe after having already signed a handful of insurers in Northern Europe.” CEO Markko Waas added, “Every invested Euro directly converts into reducing insurance related carbon emissions.”
Source: Fintech Global
Helios Underwriting receives £12.5 million
Helios Underwriting has raised £12.5 million through a new share placement with plans to raise another £1.5 million. All facets of the deal are conditional on passing of certain resolutions.
Source: Reinsurance News
North America
Employees can look on the Brightside as company announces new fundraising round
Intending to fuel their expansion, San Francisco-based Brightside has raised $33 million in its Series B round led by Obvious Ventures. CEO Tom Spann has built a platform for employees and their families to improve their financial wellbeing with a proprietary back end that also helps lower healthcare costs.
Source: Fintech News
Gen Z and millennials have reasons to get involved in insurance with Surround
Surround Insurance, a start-up geared towards changing the insurance experience for people in their 20s and 30s has received an injection of $2.5 million in a round led by MassMutual through the MM Catalyst Fund. Jonathon Grayson, CEO and co-founder of Surround, said, “Lifestyles of young adults in their 20s and 30s are changing rapidly and dramatically. They are moving, living, and working in ways never imagined by traditional insurance, and we’re helping them navigate a confusing and complicated set of risks. Oftentimes, our customers are buying insurance for the first time, so we have the perfect opportunity to win them early and then keep them for life.”
Source: Fintech Global
Sensible gets help enabling underwriters to focus on the high-IQ tasks
Craft Ventures has given its backing to Sensible, another San Francisco located insurtech so the team can enhance their orchestration platform for developers. Co-Founded by Josh Lewis and Ming Lu, Sensible provides a document orchestration platform for developers. The system makes accessing the data in documents as easy as calling an API. Dozens of companies, across insurance, logistics, health care, real estate, and financial services use it to make their operations efficient by directly connecting documents to software.
Source: FinSMEs
No rest for the wicked as Insurance Lounge gets off the couch
Insurance Lounge, a hybrid insurance agency that offers both in-store and digital experiences for customers, has raised $15 million with the help of a consortium led by Brian Modesitt and Alta Point Capital. Founder Michael DeLaGrange said, “As a second-generation agency owner, I kept seeing consumers confused and frustrated by the insurance buying experience. I envisioned a new model where buying insurance could be enjoyable, simple and convenient. Insurance Lounge is the culmination of that vision. I am excited to work with this new investor group to achieve the goal of Insurance Lounge’s unique consumer-centric approach.”
Source: Yahoo Finance
Time to shine a light on LGBTQIA+ families as Daylight raises $15 million
Daylight, the pioneering financial wellness app which helps LGBTQIA+ people start and plan for families has raised $15 million in financing led by Anthemis Group. “Family creation is a major life event for queer people and the challenges we face are increasingly more complex than those for non-LGBTQ people. Daylight Grow will help queer people navigate through the complex legal and financial challenges involved, making it faster and easier to start a family and unlocking critical intergenerational wealth for our community,” said Billie Simmons, Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of Daylight.
Source: PR Newswire
Anzen raises big seed round
San Francisco’s insurtech scene is really buzzing as Anzen Insurance has raised a monster seed round of $10 million led by Andreessen Horowitz. A statement from the company read: ““Today, we are proud to introduce Anzen (meaning ‘safety” in Japanese), where we are rebuilding from the bottom up the insurance that every growing company is required to buy – Directors and Officers (D&O) or Executive Liability Insurance. We are also launching the Anzen Management Operations (MgmtOps™) suite, which contains a first of its kind Safety Auditor created to track and automate employee compliance. Anzen is on a mission to offer a superior insurance product with software to keep companies safe; therefore allowing management to focus on what is most important- growing and running their business.”
Source: Coverager
SMEs can get Glow up as company raises $22.5 million
Glow, an insurtech focused on automating insurance processes for SMEs, is looking to launch in more US states having received a $22.5 million cash injection in a Series A round led by Cota Capital. CEO Samad Wahedi said, “If you’re a small bakery, you want to know that your employees and your assets are safe but your focus is baking. At the same time, insurance comes out of your margins. Overpaying can mean a lot of cupcakes. We use data and cutting-edge technology to make sure you’re always protected with the right coverage so you can focus on building your business.”
Source: Crowdfund Insider
CoverGo gets $15 million to expand into Middle East
CoverGo is looking to capitalise on its recent success with a $15 million Series A raise led by Noria Capital. The insurtech is now looking to build its presence in the Middle East to see if the region will be as hungry to adopt its no-code solution as other markets. CEO Tomas Holub said: “Middle East insurance companies are realising now more than ever that custom IT development is too slow and costly while rigid legacy systems can’t satisfy changing customer needs and product requirements. As a result, we have seen a fast-growing demand for CoverGo as a truly configurable no-code platform,”
Source: The FinTech Times
Asia Pacific
Embedded insurance powerhouse Cover Genius raises Series D
Cover Genius is prepping for its next stage of growth. Having been one of the fastest growing start-ups in the world over the past few years, the company announced that Dawn Capital has led a $70 million Series D round which brings its total funding to $165 million. Co-Founder and CEO Angus McDonald said, “We’ve co-created a wide range of protection solutions for partners across many verticals including several of the world’s largest airlines and travel companies, retailers and logistics players, mobility, auto and gig economy companies, banks, fintechs and proptechs and business-to-business software and event ticketing companies. Having been bootstrapped in our early days, only raising $1 million from inception in 2014 to our Series B in 2018, we’ve been blessed to have significant partners to ensure a healthy and sustainable cash flow, while also carrying frugality in our DNA.”
Source: Techcrunch
Middle East & Africa
Carteav raises round to help autonomous fleets
Carteav has received $6.5 million in equity investment funding. Operating within the autonomous fleet space, the company will now look to expand into the US market. “I am a keen investor in the automobile sector and once was a believer that it would take some time to bring a viable autonomous vehicle to market. Carteav is breaking down the barriers and is bringing a viable autonomous low speed vehicle (ALSV) to market much sooner than the industry expected. I am very pleased to be part of and invest in an innovative company with strong fundamental technical expertise like Carteav,” said Zohar Zisapel, chairman of Carteav.
Source: Globe Newswire