Next Insurance grabs $29m to cover SMEs

Online insurer to small and medium sized businesses Next Insurance has picked up $29m in a Series A round led by Munich Re/HSB Ventures.

US insurance companies Markel and Nationwide also participated alongside existing backers.

The Palo Alto-based firm previously closed a $13m Seed investment led by Zeev Ventures.

TLV Partners and Ribbit Capital also contributed to the March 2016 round.

Next aims to partner with traditional insurers to issue its policies through its technology platform designed to help SMEs tailor coverage packages to their needs.

Company CEO and co-founder Guy Goldstein commented: “The small business sector is vast and extremely varied, yet the small business insurance market is digitally underserved.

“This is especially true for independent business owners like photographers and personal trainers that we’re already serving.”

The company says the funding will be used to further expand its insurance product offering into new sectors.

The investment follows Next’s recent release of a Facebook chatbot for small business insurance.

It claims more than 3,500 business clients and has paid out two claims to date.

Munich Re/HSB Ventures’ managing director Jacqueline LeSage Krause said: “Insurance is changing to meet the needs of micro businesses.

“Next is a leader in using new technologies, combined with a deep knowledge of clients’ unique needs, to precisely tailor insurance solutions, simply and easily.”

Copyright © 2017 FINTECH GLOBAL

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