Australia insurance start-up raises $31m Series B

Australia’s AirTree Ventures also participated alongside UK-based investor Latitude. It brings total funds raised to date to $53 million, with previous backers including Australia’s Five V Capital, Hollard Insurance, and Seven West Media.

Open provides car and home insurance products via an end-to-end platform that aims to reduce costs and make the process faster for a customer base of some 70,000. It claims to make 80% of insurance tasks – from quote to claim – automatic or digital, self-service experiences.

The company is now expanding internationally, with a New Zealand launch planned for late this year and a UK entry in mid-2022. Funds will be used to expand the team in these markets and add new products targeting the small to medium-sized business segment.

“Insurtech is years behind payments and lending in terms of digitisation and it’s in need of renewed focus on customer outcomes. Open is the leading embedded insurance player across Australia and New Zealand,” Jason Graham, a partner at Movac, said in a statement.

“Their technology is built to bring trust back to the insurance industry and through their exponential growth, we can see that consumers prefer this new, ethical, digital way of doing insurance.”

Open is the ninth company invested by Movac’s fifth fund, which achieved a second close last year of NZ$154 million ($108 million). Movac’s fourth fund closed on NZ$105 million in 2017. Active since 1998, the VC firm brands itself as New Zealand’s most experienced technology investor.

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• Topics
• Australasia
• Financials
• Technology
• Early-stage
• Australia
• AirTree Ventures
• insurance
• Fintech
• Financial Services