Sure Raises $ 100 Million at $ 550 Million Valuation to Help Companies Launch Insurance Products with Its “Flexible” APIs – TechCrunch

Sure, an insurance infrastructure startup, today announced it has closed a $ 100 million Series C funding at a valuation of $ 550 million.

New York-based Declaration Partners and European growth investor Kinnevik co-led the funding, which also included participation from WndrCo and existing backers WR Berkley and Menlo Ventures. The round brings the Santa Monica-based startup’s total raised to $ 123.1 million since its inception in 2015.

Sure launched its first product (enterprise SaaS) in early 2016 and today counts traditional financial services companies and financial technology companies among its clients. Customers understand Farmers Insurance, Chubb, Intuit, Betterment, Revolut, Carvana, several car manufacturers and a leading global credit card network. All of them offer insurance programs built on Sure’s infrastructure.

Although Sure does not disclose concrete figures on its revenue, it claims to have been profitable since 2019. In addition, CEO and co-founder Wayne Slavin claims that his annual recurring revenue (ARR) has increased “by more than 3 times per year. during the last years. . “

In summary, Sure says it has created a technological infrastructure that modernizes the entire insurance process and “allows it to fit into consumer experiences.” In other words, using Sure’s infrastructure, businesses can sell insurance directly to consumers “in milliseconds,” the company says, with a fully digital experience that involves neither paper nor people.

The company is at the forefront of integrated insurance, according to Slavin.

This built-in insurance, he said, is “an insurance built into the brand’s existing digital products across all industries,” he said.

“This can range from auto insurance included in the online purchase of a new electric car or the purchase of a used car on Carvana to the purchase of business insurance when you open the new account. banking your business, ”Slavin added.

The benefits of using its APIs allow businesses to bring new insurance product offerings to market faster, simpler, and cheaper than other methods, says Slavin.

“Sure is distinguished by the three pillars that matter to our customers: a proven technology infrastructure, the fastest speed to market and the ability to deliver fully integrated customer experiences,” Slavin told TechCrunch. “Like any disrupted legacy industry, many players are trying to ride the ‘on-board’ wave by renaming their 1.0 Experiences with a fancy new name. True Integrated Insurance Experiences are unique and engineered by Sure because they are designed from the ground up to complete an end-to-end transaction in the integrated channel.

The company plans to use its new capital from its growth cycle to accelerate its global expansion, accelerate new product launches and continue to “streamline integrated insurance customer experiences.”

International expansion will come in the form of new clients – and offices – in Europe, Latin America and Asia, as well as existing clients with successful national programs that plan to expand their insurance solutions to international clients, according to Slavin.

Sure also plans to continue hiring. Sure’s current number of employees is 80, which is an increase of over 50% from last year. The company plans to triple its engineering workforce in 2022.

Brian Stern, partner at Declaration Partners, said his company was drawn to Sure because of his view that Slavin is “a visionary leader” as well as “the huge global market for this processing technology.

“Sure focuses on the consumer experience, convenience and the power to integrate this ability into a consumer’s relationship with a brand,” he said.

by Kinnevik Ola Nordbye said a few of the companies in her firm’s portfolio are already using Sure.

“We love how it enables better customer experiences while unlocking a huge untapped profit pool for brands that have already acquired their customer base,” he wrote via email. “One of the most difficult areas of fintech to master in this area is insurance. We were impressed with Sure’s cutting edge technology platform, which is advanced far beyond what you would expect from a company at this point, a founder with a clear vision of what he wants to create combined with in-depth knowledge of the industry, and stellar financial KPIs such as growth and profitability.

Nordbye added that Sure is unique in the way it enables new revenue streams at both ends of the equation (insurance companies as well as brands), and that they do so as a software game and without being a carrier. risk.

“The fact that they can deliver holistic offerings that can be delivered at incredible implementation speed is also really unique,” ​​he added.