We’re back with another instalment of the ITC DIA Europe deal flows. Each month we compile the most exciting insurtech investments to give you the latest insight into the up-and-coming businesses taking the industry by storm. This month, the US blew all other regions out of the water (typical) but there were some fascinating raises in Europe and MENA. As has been the case for a while now, we’re still seeing high volumes of activity in the commercial space with cyber and employee benefits two areas that continue to see cash injections on a regular basis these days.

Headlines

Europe

• Arma Karma gets ‘stamp of approval’ as it seals £1.5m in funding round

• Someone’s making Nayms for themselves

• Melius scores seed round for SME cybersecurity

North America

• Capitola gets Series A to fund AI-powered commercial insurance marketplace

• Ledgebrook announces gets cash injection

• YellowBird gets backing and now looks to spread its wings

• Axle will look to steer in the right direction with new funds

• Double trouble for Inshur with investment and acqusition

• PolicyBound gets the nod from Archetype

• What goes around comes around for Carmacare

• There’s a new kid on the block!

• IAG provides Planck with extra support

MENA

• Savings platform Hakbah raises pre-seed

• Everything’s looking Peachy for payments

Europe

1). The insurtech MGA “Arma Karma” now has several projects in the works as it has completed a £1.5m seed round led by Ascension Ventures. The subscription-based insurtech platform operates within the personal P&C space covering possessions such as personal electronics and jewellery. Ben Smyth, CEO and Co-Founder said, “This is all about biting the poverty premium and the additional costs for those in less advantaged positions to pay for access to financial services, which is something really close to our hearts.”

Source: https://www.insurancetimes.co.uk/news/arma-karma-gets-stamp-of-approval-as-it-seals-15m-in-funding-round/1444352.article

2). Nayms, a smart contract platform has raised an undisclosed amount bringing its total funding to $12m and a valuation of $80m. The London-based insurtech, whose round was led by UDHC, “is on a mission to modernise the insurance sector by creating the world’s best digital insurance marketplace for transparent, traceable, and transferable digital asset risk”. UDHC CEO Steven Becker said, “As a fully-regulated marketplace for on-chain insurance, Nayms represents the next major step in risk transfer. Using blockchain technology, Nayms extends traditional risk markets using decentralised tools and features that take risk pricing and management to a new level.” 

Source: https://siliconcanals.com/crowdfunding/nayms-raises-funding/

3). Melius Cyber has raised another £500,000 as it has closed its second funding round within a year. They have once again secured the funding from the North East Venture Fund and have wasted no time in securing senior leadership appointments. Melius CEO Richard Brown said, “We had a great 2022 in terms of moving the product forward, building our team and putting the foundations in place for growth. Our focus now is to grow our customer base and to continue to improve the product.  This investment gives us the working capital we need to build our brand and market position.”

Source: https://fintech.global/2023/04/26/uk-based-cybertech-melius-cyber-secured-500000/

North America

1). Munich Re Ventures has led a new round for Capitola, an AI-powered digital marketplace that facilitates relationships between carriers and brokers. The Series A, worth $15.6m will help the insurtech expand its platform with a particular focus on market intelligence and US sales. “The insurance industry has seen many technological advancements over the years, but very little attention has been given to the insurance professionals and the tools they use,” said Sivan Iram, Capitola’s co-founder and CEO. “Capitola’s mission is to help insurance professionals deliver exceptional client service and coverage. Our platform brings together brokers and underwriters, removing many of the operational inefficiencies around manual processes and repetitive tasks to allow them to focus on what they do best. We’re thrilled to have the support of Munich Re Ventures, Lightspeed, and our other investors as we continue to grow our team, develop innovative solutions and expand our impact on the insurance industry.”

Source: https://financialit.net/news/fundraising-news/insurtech-capitola-secures-156m-series-funding-round-led-munich-re-ventures

2). Boston-based Ledgebrook has raised $4.6m, structured as an uncapped SAFE and led by Parker Beauchamp at Markd, to funnel into its current products and advance future offerings. “I’m absolutely thrilled to bring Parker aboard Team Ledgebrook,” said Ledgebrook’s Founder & CEO Gage Caligaris, “his experience of having placed >$1B in premiums as the owner of a retail brokerage makes him uniquely qualified to offer insight and support to Ledgebrook as we grow.”

Source: https://www.insurtechcircle.com/read-article?recordId=rec2b3VXqTvUOvKEK

3). EHS and risk management platform, YellowBird, has raised $6.25 million in a seed round led by Rebalance Capital and Manifold Group. With significant growth over the past few years, the company is going from strength to strength with Michael Zalle, Founder and CEO saying, ““We are thrilled to have completed this funding round with the support of two of the nation’s most highly respected impact venture capitalists and two of the largest global insurance brands. This funding will provide resources to continue developing our platform’s technology, particularly artificial intelligence, performance tracking and delivery efficiency, as well as introduce upskilling opportunities for our professionals. Our goal is to help EHS and Risk Management Professionals earn more with greater flexibility and create equitable access to work in the process.”

Source: https://fintech.global/2023/04/21/risk-management-platform-yellowbird-bags-6-25m/

4). Gradient Ventures is leading a round for Axle, which is aiming to become the “Plaid for insurance”. The company connects insurers and their parallel industries through an API. “As founders, fundraising in this environment is a competitive process,” Axle’s three founders said in a joint statement. “We were fortunate to not only find investors quickly, but find ones with deep technical and market expertise. We’re excited to work with Gradient and the rest of our new investors as we embark on our next chapter.”

Source: https://www.insurtechcircle.com/read-article?recordId=recq3gLhxPBlkTMPI

5). Inshur has made two huge moves. The first is its acquisition of American Business Insurance Services and the second is its new $26m funding to bolster its position in Europe and expand into the US. Dan Bratshpis, CEO and Co-Founder at INSHUR said: “The on-demand driver economy is growing exponentially around the world, so the ability to provide access to competitive insurance policies that match drivers’ needs is becoming imperative to delivering the best user experience possible.”

Source: https://insurtechdigital.com/articles/inshur-acquires-abi-secures-funding-to-scale-business

6). PolicyBound, another insurtech in the commercial space, has partnered up with Archetype in a new round to boost the insurtech’s expansion. “We are thrilled to partner with Archetype as we scale our company and revolutionize the commercial insurance industry,” said Mike Weisbrot, Co-Founder and CEO of PolicyBound. “Their investment will allow us to enhance our platform, expand our product offerings, and reach target markets. We look forward to working with Archetype and bringing our innovative solutions to the commercial insurance ecosystem.”

Source: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/archetype-invests-in-policybound-301797890.html

7). CarmaCare, an insurtech offering subscription-based insurance offerings for car insurers, has reinforced the seed funding it received at the end of 2022. The company has also appointed a new CEO, Jamie Ahern, whose goal is to expand the company’s products which includes “healthcare-for-your-car”. “People are often afraid to take their car to the shop due to a feeling of being taken advantage of,” Ahern said. “Virtual Garage is like ‘TeleDoc for your car,’ and now that most people have technology-connected cars, often an experienced mechanic can tell what is going on and give estimates. Now when you go to the garage, you can tell them what might be the problem and the estimate, so if the mechanic quotes you something quite higher, you have information to help.”

Source: https://techcrunch.com/2023/04/04/carmacare-car-repair-fintech/

8). MetaProp and Coelius Capital have led a $3.5m seed funding round for Billy, which helps construction companies manage their insurance policies. CEO Nyasha Gutsa said, “We are reducing a lot of friction between insureds and their insurance companies by facilitating the exchange of insurance data on a single platform. On a construction project, there might be as many as 20 different insurance companies underwriting risk for many different contractors involved. Managing this process in email, Excel, and project management systems is inefficient and extremely risky. We are incredibly excited to offer something that is not only faster and cheaper, but also improves the overall customer experience of managing insurance.”

Source: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/billy-secures-3-5m-in-seed-funding-led-by-global-proptech-vc-firm-metaprop-301409608.html

9). IAG Firemark Ventures has invested in Planck in another move in the commercial insurtech space. With Planck looking to expand into the Australian and New Zealand markets, the insurtech will continue to use its world-eading data analysis capabilities to provide real-time answers to underwriting issues in commercial insurance.

Source: https://www.insurancebusinessmag.com/au/news/technology/iag-invests-in-global-insurtech-platform-planck-442386.aspx

MENA

1). Saudi Arabia’s fintech savings platform Hakbah has announced a $2m pre-seed funding round led by Global Ventures. Naif AbuSaida, Founder of Hakbah, said, “We are proud to have two strong financial institutions, Global Ventures and Aditum, as our primary investors. They share our values, vision, and ambition to elevate the savings industry to the next level. Savings are an important pillar of the Financial Sector Development Program and increasing them is a key focus for Saudi Vision 2030.”

Source: https://ffnews.com/newsarticle/hakbah-closes-us2-million-pre-series-a-funding-round/

2). Another payment service provider has received a big funding round with Apis Partners leading a $31m series A for Peach Payments. “At Peach Payments, our mission is to enable African businesses and entrepreneurs to succeed in digital commerce. We want to be the infrastructure layer they build their business on. This was our original vision when we started, and is more relevant today than ever,”says Rahul Jain, Co-Founder and CEO, Peach Payments. “We’ve witnessed incredible growth in the past three years driven by fundamental forces and shifts in consumer and business adoption of digital commerce. Across market segments – from retail to digital learning, fitness, and even traditional financial services – we’ve onboarded new clients in almost every vertical. We’ve built a very strong team with exceptional operators and I am excited to partner with the team at Apis and take this business to where it deserves to be. The Apis team brings an incredible wealth of experience in fintech across the globe and we look forward to exploring exponential opportunities together with them.”

Source: https://ffnews.com/newsarticle/apis-partners-leads-e29m-us31m-series-a-funding-for-peach-payments/