Accelerant
$193 million, private equity round, Jan. 12
Description: Data platform for underwriters
Round leader: Eldridge
Other participants: Deer Park, Marshall Wace, MS&AD Ventures, Altamont Capital
"Accelerant's unique focus on data-driven collaboration has proven to be a winning strategy for its Member MGUs." — Sam Gaynor, Managing Director at Altamont.
Descartes Underwriting
$120 million, Series B, Jan. 31
Description: Parametric insurance for commercial lines
Round leader: Highland Europe and Eurazeo
Other participants: Serena, Cathay Innovation, Blackfin Capital Partners, Seaya Ventures, Mundi Ventures
"With climate change and many other emerging risks including most recently the pandemic, corporates and public sector companies are increasingly experiencing the need to access comprehensive and transparent insurance that can cover them efficiently against critical external events. Since its inception three years ago, and thanks to its highly experienced team, Descartes has become a clear category leader in the parametric insurance market." — Guillaume d’Audiffret, Managing Director at Eurazeo
Foresight Group
$39 million, Series B, Jan. 19
Description: Digital middle-market insurance
Round leader: OMERS Ventures
Other participants: Digital Garage Ventures, George Kaiser Family Foundation, Brick and Mortar Ventures, Builders VC
"With its Safesite mobile application, Foresight has the ability to drive behavior change among its insureds to foster a safer work environment. And a work site with fewer injuries drives down workers compensation premiums for the policyholder and drives up profitability for the insurer." — Michael Yang, Managing Partner of OMERS Ventures
Sayata
$35 million, Series A, Jan. 24
Description: Business insurance marketplace
Round leader: Pitango Growth and Hanaco Ventures
Other participants: Team8 Capital, Vertex Ventures, Elron Ventures, and OurCrowd.
"We believe the next multi-billion dollar insurtech companies will not be new consumer brands like generation 1.0, but rather solutions that transform the industry's current manual back-end processes into streamlined digital solutions. Sayata has proven more than adept at automating the distribution process of acquiring insurance for brokers. We think they are just in the first inning of tapping into the $100B SMB insurance market in the U.S." — Lior Prosor, founding partner, Hanaco Ventures
Ascend
$30 million, Series A, Jan. 27
Description: Digital insurance payments platform
Round leader: Index Ventures
Other participants: Distributed Ventures, HSCM Bermuda, XYZ Ventures, First Round Capital, Susa Ventures, FirstMark Capital
"Building a modern checkout experience that feels more Shopify and less like filing tax forms is the biggest opportunity in the insurance market today. There's an immediate need for the type of verticalized and embedded end-to-end payments product that spans brokers, MGAs, and carriers" — Mark Goldberg, partner, Index Ventures.
Parsyl
$25 million, Series B, Jan. 27
Description: IoT-powered cargo insurance
Round leader: HSCM Ventures
Other participants: Lineage Ventures, Flexport Ventures, GLP Capital Partners, Luna
Honeycomb
$15 million, Series A, Jan. 20
Description: Digital insurance for multi-family properties
Round leader: Ibex Investors
Other participants: SiriusPoint, Phoenix Insurance, Distributed Ventures, IT-Farm, Sure Ventures
"Their platform uniquely leverages both first and third-party data to disaggregate risk in ways that are totally different from the rest of the industry. Honeycomb is growing at a rapid pace since its launch, and we believe they will become the dominant platform in this market." — Gal Glitter, partner, Ibex Investors