All posts tagged: insurtech

Kenyan insurtech Lami’s bid to acquire Bluewave collapses

Kenyan insurtech Lami’s bid to acquire Bluewave collapses

Kenyan insurtech Lami Technologies in February last year announced its acquisition of Bluewave, another startup within the insurance space, to expand its product offerings and enable it to scale into new markets in Africa — but it has now emerged that the deal fell through months later. TechCrunch has exclusively learned that at the time Lami went public with the acquisition, only a two-year “strategic partnership agreement” was in place. However, Bluewave founder Adelaide Odhiambo told TechCrunch that ground had been laid for an acquisition once Lami’s fundraising campaign, which had taken off in earnest around the same time, closed. Lami went on to raise a $3.7 million seed extension led by Harlem Capital. Odhiambo, who joined Lami as head of partnerships, claims that the terms of the deal, including the acquisition cost, started changing, forcing her to walk away in August last year. In the meantime, Bluewave had licensed its tech to Lami, and onboarded partners and employees as per the agreement. Lami declined to comment. Odhiambo told TechCrunch that Bluewave “entered into the …

Non-unicorn insurtech Luko urgently needs a buyer, but will it be Allianz?

Non-unicorn insurtech Luko urgently needs a buyer, but will it be Allianz?

How fast time flies. Just a few weeks ago, on the heels of its announced acquisition by British group Admiral, French insurtech Luko advertised itself through billboards in the Paris metro and felt confident enough to joke about the fact that it once won a “Next Unicorn” award. Fast forward to this week, and its parent company, Demain ES, will be put for sale via a legal notice in the newspaper after Admiral abandoned ship. What happened in the meantime is a bumpy journey from one offer to the next, until a tribunal pulled the brakes on the rollercoaster ride that can’t end soon enough for the 120+ employees whose jobs are on the line. They already know they work for a non-unicorn, but they are now likely very keen to know whether their next employer will be Allianz. As for policyholders, Luko insists they don’t need to worry, as “Luko Cover, the broker and manager of contracts marketed by Luko, and Luko Insurance AG, the insurer of the Luko Group [are] separate entities […]. …

World Bank’s IFC backs Indian insurtech startup Onsurity in M funding

World Bank’s IFC backs Indian insurtech startup Onsurity in $24M funding

Onsurity, an Indian startup that offers monthly subscription-based insurance solutions to micro, small and medium enterprises, startups and growing businesses, has raised $24 million in a funding round led by the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC). The Series B round also saw the participation from existing investors Nexus Venture Partners and Quona Capital. With the fresh funding, the three-year-old startup has raised $40 million in total. India has over 63 million micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), covering close to 400 million employees and supporting 675 million families. However, traditional players predominantly offer motor, retail health and large corporate insurance programs to cater to a larger population. One key reason for the established insurance companies not to focus on enterprise customers is the country’s low penetration of insurance in general. According to the government’s Economic Survey 2022–23, insurance penetration in India was 4.2% in 2021. Onsurity aims to fill the gap with its suite of offerings designed specifically for MSMEs enterprises and emerging businesses. It also integrates healthcare and wellness benefits to let enterprises …

European Digital insurtech startup Getsafe acquires Luko’s German portfolio, reaches 550,000 customers

European Digital insurtech startup Getsafe acquires Luko’s German portfolio, reaches 550,000 customers

Getsafe, a German-based digital insurtech startup, has acquired the German portfolio of Luko, a French insurtech startup that recently neared insolvency before agreeing to be acquired by British insurer Admiral Group in a transaction that didn’t include its German or Spanish operations. Getsafe is now present in four countries since its expansion into France. Luko’s own expansion into Germany dates back to 2022 when it acquired German startup Coya, and it’s in large part its former customer base that Getsafe is now taking over. “Roughly 90% of German Luko customers are former Coya customers,” Getsafe CEO and founder Christian Wiens told TechCrunch. Asked whether Getsafe had also tried to acquire Coya at the time, Wiens said that the two companies only had “loose discussions” that “never materialized.” Luko was more serious in its interest, because it would obtain an insurer license from the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) by acquiring Coya; Getsafe didn’t need that, since it had already obtained its insurer license from BaFin in 2021. The takeover announced today, which, according to Getsafe was …

Unpacking the end of Luko’s solo journey in insurtech

Unpacking the end of Luko’s solo journey in insurtech

European insurtech is showing strength that you can’t spot if you only read the data on venture capital that’s available today. Indeed, some startups are showing strong fundamentals that will likely help them through this volatile landscape and then some. We made this point a couple weeks ago and we still stand by it. However, it’s not all rosy for companies that put growth first back when it was sexy to reach for the skies and now find themselves in a market that favors a quick, viable and visible path to profitability. The Exchange explores startups, markets and money. Read it every morning on TechCrunch+ or get The Exchange newsletter every Saturday. Case in point: French insurtech Luko, which neared insolvency before agreeing to be acquired by British insurer Admiral Group. The deal itself makes a lot of sense, but the rumored price tag — €11 million plus an additional €3 million tied to specific milestones — is raising eyebrows. That’s because Luko had previously raised €72 million in total, aiming to build a European …

European insurtech is showing strength that venture data doesn’t fully detail

European insurtech is showing strength that venture data doesn’t fully detail

If you only tracked American insurance technology companies that went public recently, you might think insurtech is in its flop era. Thankfully, that isn’t true. The Exchange explores startups, markets and money. Read it every morning on TechCrunch+ or get The Exchange newsletter every Saturday. We saw earlier this week how the falling valuations of public insurtech companies have coincided with a decline in VC interest in the category. The funding climate for late-stage startups in the sector has consequently been tough, but there’s plenty of optimism around the newest generation of startups. However, it’s worthwhile to note that the U.S. heavily skews the data in the global insurtech market. Of the $2.4 billion invested in insurtech startups across the world, half, or $1.2 billion, went to American companies, per data from Dealroom. Regional results, therefore, deserve more of our attention. So this morning, we’re looking at how insurtech has been doing in the EU. We’ll also check on the performance of several European insurtech startups, per data collected by Stanislas Lot, an investor at …

Can insurtech recover from the ‘death of insurtech 1.0’?

Can insurtech recover from the ‘death of insurtech 1.0’?

Many startup sectors came out of 2021’s hype with a massive hangover in the form of valuations that they simply couldn’t justify as the market dipped and dived. Insurtech startups had it the worst, though, as investors started questioning the viability of the entire category. A recent report on the sector by Dealroom, Mundi Ventures, MAPFRE, NN Group and Generali refers to this disillusionment as “the death of Insurtech 1.0.” The Exchange explores startups, markets and money. Read it every morning on TechCrunch+ or get The Exchange newsletter every Saturday. That demise started in 2022, when “a broad market downturn, coupled with clear specific challenges of notable insurtech[s] to reach profitability,” contributed to creating a newly challenging environment for insurtech funding, the report said. This challenging environment is being reflected in the data this year, too: public insurtechs are struggling and there’s been a sharp decline in venture capital flowing into the sector. But money is like water where venture capital is concerned. Despite all the bad news, capital is still trickling into some pockets …

Full-stack insurtech startup PasarPolis hires former CEO of Allianz Indonesia

Full-stack insurtech startup PasarPolis hires former CEO of Allianz Indonesia

PasarPolis, one of Indonesia’s first full-stack insurtechs, has brought on Peter Van Zyl as its president. Van Zyl is former director and CEO of Allianz Indonesia, one of the country’s biggest insurers. Through a strategic partnership with Tap Insure, PasarPolis is able to underwrite and distribute its own insurance products to clients like Tokopedia, Gojek and Traveloka. Van Zyl will oversee PasarPolis’ strategy as a full-stack insurer. In addition to seven years as director and CEO of Allianz Indonesia, Van Zyl spent 15 years in senior roles at AIG. He told TechCrunch that he decided to make the move from a well-established player like Allianz Indonesia to startup life because of the potential he sees in digital insurance solutions reaching a broader population in Indonesia. Peter Van Zyl Van Zyl first began working with the PasarPolis team more than eight years ago when Allianz became the insurer for PasarPolis’ business partners. His responsibilities at his new rule include guiding the company toward its goal of becoming the leading digital insurer in Indonesia. Van Zyl said …

Despite messy IPOs, there’s good reason to be optimistic about insurtech startups

Despite messy IPOs, there’s good reason to be optimistic about insurtech startups

It wasn’t a surprise to learn that former scooter unicorn Bird is pursuing a reverse stock split. The company isn’t treading new ground here — it isn’t the only tech firm that has IPO’d in the past couple of years to consolidate its equity in hopes of keeping its share price above $1 to avoid a delisting. Root Insurance did the same thing last August. As did Hippo, another former insurtech startup. Root and Hippo were very much part of the trend that saw several consumer-facing insurance startups going public during the last venture boom, as were MetroMile and Lemonade. Since their IPOs, most of these companies’ track records on the public market have been suboptimal, to put it mildly. The Exchange explores startups, markets and money. Read it every morning on TechCrunch+ or get The Exchange newsletter every Saturday. Valued at around $6.8 billion in its IPO, Root is today worth a mere $67.2 million, per Yahoo Finance. Hippo and MetroMile went the SPAC route, and both saw their values decline precipitously afterwards: Hippo …