Every month ITC DIA Europe brings you the latest investments from the world of insurtech and this month is no different. Some highlights in this month’s deal-flow include big raises in North America and new investments in Europe, including healthtech. Happy reading!

Headlines

Europe

• Aviva bolsters venture arm and kicks off with investment in Scan

• SEB and Hedvig partner up with cash kicker to boot

• SVB is still making moves with healthtech investment

• Australian connection comes good for Koala

• Vitaance is planning to make customers healthier

North America

• Kin raises mammoth Series D

• Tiger Global gives insurtech the Monnai

• Hourly’s here to help your employees fit in

• Equisoft with the biggest raise of the month

• AI for auto gets sizeable funding roung

• More friends for machine learning and insurance as Assured Allies gets Series B

APAC

• PhonePe is entering the insurance market

• Roojai looking to revolutionise personal lines with Series B

MENA

• Zorro’s seed funding round not to be sniffed at

Europe

1). Aviva has announced that it will pump £150m into its venture capital arm, Aviva Ventures. The company has already put the cash to good use, giving £1.5m to Scan.com which helps consumers and businesses book diagnostic scans. Ben Luckett, Chief Innovation Officer at Aviva, said: “Innovation is central to Aviva’s strategy and our ambition to deliver great outcomes for our customers. The £150m commitment to Aviva Ventures will be used to make early stage investments in promising young digital and tech firms that also provide us with insight on emerging technology and consumer trends.” Co-Founder and CEO of Scan.com, Charlie Bullock, said: “We are thrilled to have such strong support from Aviva as we continue to build Scan.com across the UK. The capital will be used to continue to improve access to diagnostic imaging and medical screening exams, through our consumer facing marketplace and application programming interfaces (API). This round would not have been possible without the incredible effort and tenacity shown by our entire team, who have built Scan.com at such a fast pace in what is traditionally a very slow-moving industry.”

Source: https://www.aviva.com/newsroom/news-releases/2023/04/aviva-plc-commits-further-150-million-to-aviva-ventures-and-invests-in-scan-dot-com/

2). SEB and Hedvig have announced a strategic partnership with the former also investing in the latter whose CEO is Lucas Carslén. This follows SEB’s partnership with Insurely which took place last year. “Hedvig’s customer-friendly and digital insurance offer means that we faster gain the possibility to offer our customers insurance services in a smooth and easy way,” says Jonas Söderberg, head of SEB’s division Private & Corporate Customers. “The fact that we also make an investment in the company is natural, as we see big opportunities in a joint journey with Hedvig and the new main owner Adelis Equity.”

Source: https://sebgroup.com/press/news/2023/seb-enters-strategic-partnership-and-invests-in-hedvig

3). Berlin-based Medwing has completed a Series C round worth €44m with investment from new investors that included Hambro Perks and SVB Capital. CEO Johannes Roggendorf said, “The rising shortage of healthcare staff increases the need to help workers find the right job. Our ambition is to become the starting point for everyone who is looking for a permanent or temporary job in healthcare. Our technology helps to provide superior, faster, yet personalised job matches. With the new funding we’re excited to further invest in our product and service to empower healthcare workers to do what they do best: care.”

Source: https://tech.eu/2023/03/15/medwing-raises-eur44-million-to-help-ailing-healthcare-sector-hire-and-retain-staff/

4). Insurtech Gateway has led a €2m funding round for Paris’ Koala who are looking to grow its team as well as expand cover for the travel sector. Leo Tordjman, co-founder of Koala, said, “Covid-19 was a real eye-opener for the travel market but also for travel protections which showed many of their limitations with messy exclusions and very long reimbursement processes.”

Source: https://siliconcanals.com/crowdfunding/koala-bags-2m/

5). SoftBank and Astorya were among the investors in a €3m round for Spanish insurtech Vitaance. Founded by Ana Zamora and Bernard Granados, the company will put its efforts into creating a research and innovation lab to fuel its life insurance product. “We will not stop investing in technology, and we will not stop building a better product, always respecting one maxim: data is at the service of people and not the other way around,” the company stated.

Source: https://insurtechdigital.com/life-and-pensions/spanish-insurtech-startup-vitaance-raises-eu3m-eur-funding

North America

1). Direct home insurer Kin has added $15m to its Series D round with new investment from Geodesic Capital and QED Investors among others, bringing its total Series D to $109 million – a huge raise. “Despite the tough market for high-growth companies right now, we’ve increased revenue 2.2x, improved each of our major operating metrics, and kept the same valuation. These are good outcomes, especially when other startups are accepting punishing terms or a valuation hit,” said Sean Harper, CEO of Kin.

Source: https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/national/2023/03/23/713562.htm

2). Tiger Global has led a Series A for Monnai worth $6.5m for Monnai, the first ever global consumer insights provider for financial institutions following a successful seed round only six months previously. “In a digital-first world, every business is a fintech. Whether you’re in an established market or an emerging market, there’s an inherent need for clean infrastructure. Businesses globally have been developing strong capabilities using more and more data to make their own decisions. The challenge is to get access to the insights that will inform decisions across silos and use cases and in as many useful ways as possible. This is where Monnai comes into play, providing a single source of truth for businesses across entire customer and transactions lifecycles,” said Monnai CEO and co-founder Pierre Demarche.

Source: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230309005305/en/Monnai-Secures-6.5-Million-Series-A-Funding-Led-by-Tiger-Global-to-Support-Mission-of-Becoming-the-Single-Source-of-Truth-for-Fintech-Decision-making-Globally

3). Insurtech Hourly has raised more funding in its Series A with the round now totalling $32m led by Glilot Capital Partners. With a focus on the commercial space which seems to be a high-growth area in the insurtech world at the moment, the company provides workers’ compensation and payroll solutions to SMEs who employ hourly workers. The platform built for SMEs by CEO and Co-Founder Tom Sagi, will now be able to accurately calculate workers’ comp premiums which often are over or underpaid to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars.

Source: https://www.insurtechcircle.com/read-article?recordId=recNdQG3lrpuA9eyp

4). March’s biggest raise was brought to you by insurtech giants Equisoft, whose $125m round included investors such as Investissement Québec, the government of Québec, Export Development Canada and Fondaction. “Digital transformation and customer experience projects are no longer optional. Equisoft’s mission is to help companies through this process – at any stage of digital maturity – by delivering the most trusted solutions for complex financial services challenges. Our customer focused approach has enabled us to gain the confidence of some of the largest financial institutions around the world,” said Equisoft CEO, Luis Romero. “We are honored by the trust and funding from our long-time investors and are thrilled to welcome Investissement Québec and the government of Québec as new investment partners. Their focus on domestic and international growth is a great fit with our expansion strategy as we look to further develop our global footprint through continued investment in our people, our products and through international acquisitions.”  

Source: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/equisoft-secures-125-million-in-funding-strengthening-its-position-as-global-tech-leader-301759544.html

5). Fairmatic, founded by Jonathan Matus, has raised $46m in its latest funding round led by Battery Ventures. The company will use the new funds to expand the team which currently sits across US, Israel and India. Matus said, “Fairmatic has seen outsized traction since our Series A and this new capital will be used to accelerate our lead in bringing the full power of AI to commercial auto insurance. Fairmatic is making strategic hires across the globe and we are accelerating the growth of our R&D hubs in Israel and in India. Our vision is to build a tech-powered insurance platform that’s not only fully digital but also comprehensively improved and powered by AI, across every product and business function.”

Source: https://guce.techcrunch.com/copyConsent?sessionId=3_cc-session_e83c02be-4620-4f29-b17d-207843d82d88&lang=en-US

6). Perennial insurtech unicorn investor FinTLV Ventures have led a new round for Assured Allies alongside Harel Insurance. Offering a solution that allows for preventative measures against disability as well as retirement products, the company now has $65m in total funding following their $42.5m Series B. CEO and Co-Founder, Roee Nahir said, “This funding round is a great testament to the trust our investors and partners have in the technology-driven successful aging platform we have built. The need for innovative long-term care solutions for the aging population has never been greater. With the U.S. longevity economy valued at over $8 trillion, this is a blue ocean opportunity that is finally being accessed through technology. We experienced rapid growth this past year despite the macro economic climate, and we are only just scratching the surface. This coming year we expect continued growth, as we focus on making AgeAssured available to more policyholders and expanding the carrier and partner network for NeverStop. We look forward to bringing more innovative products to the long-term care insurance market and the 90 million Americans over the age of 55.”

Source: https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/h1gip9ek2

APAC

1). Indian payments company PhonePe, whose CEO is Sameer Nigam, has announced that it will be expanding into the insurance market. Having secured $100m in funding from General Atlantic among other investors, the company has claimed that it will now march into the financial services space with other business lines as well such as wealth management, lending, stockbroking, ONDC-based shopping and account aggregators.

Source: https://fintech.global/2023/04/13/phonepe-nets-yet-another-100m-as-billion-dollar-funding-plan-continues/

2). HDI International AG has given its backing to Roojai.com, a Thai insurtech offering insurance products in the personal lines space. Already recognised as one of the most innovative start-ups in Asia, the company founded by Nicolas Faquet will use the $42m Series B to expand its product lines as well as invest in technological capabilities.

Source: https://www.insurtechcircle.com/read-article?recordId=rec5QzlHdHUokdAUd

MENA

1). Pitango and 10D have led a seed round for Zorro, a new player in the commercial health benefits game. With $11.5m now in the bank, founders Guy Ezekiel and Maya Perl will now be able to focus on R&D as well as expand customer operations.

Source: https://www.finsmes.com/2023/03/zorro-raises-11-5m-in-seed-funding.html