The German reinsurance giant has been working with Next Insurance since 2016 to help develop and scale its digital insurance products targeting SMBs
The Munich Re investment will help Next Insurance scale its products covering SMBs in the US
Next Insurance has received $250m in Series C funding from reinsurance giant Munich Re to scale its property and casualty insurance business targeted at small and medium-sized companies in the US.
The digital insurer claimed this latest investment brought its total funding to more than $380 million, and gave it a post-money valuation of $1bn — making it a unicorn.
According to the firm, Munich Re has been an active growth partner since it launched, leading its Series A funding and contributing to the Series B round.
Next Insurance co-founder and CEO Guy Goldstein said: “We have been working with Munich Re since the beginning, and they have been a great partner in helping us grow and develop our business.
“We launched Next Insurance in order to transform the small business insurance industry and this new investment will continue to help us grow our team, develop our technology, deliver phenomenal service and accelerate customer growth.
“We are excited about the future of insurance and are proud to be, together with Munich Re, drivers of industry change.”
Munich Re confident of Next Insurance success
Munich Re is making a big push into digital insurance, with partnerships that include recently announced unicorn insurtech Hippo, Wefox-acquired German company ONE and digital UK broker BoughtByMany.
Its partnership with Next Insurance started in 2016, and it has since helped shape the pricing and underwriting criteria for policies, using customer data collected by the insurtech’s AI and machine learning technology.
Chairman of the board of management Joachim Wenning said: “Next Insurance’s data and technology-driven business model offers outstanding growth opportunities, which we will harness together.
“Next Insurance will benefit from our expertise in primary insurance and reinsurance. This investment emphasises Munich Re’s commitment to be the leading provider of digital insurance solutions.
“It also helps Munich Re expand its footprint in the promising insurance market for small and medium-sized commercial customers in the United States.
“We are confident that building on our proven collaboration will benefit both Munich Re and Next Insurance.”
What types of commercial insurance does Next provide to SMBs?
Next Insurance’s strategy for capturing the US SMB market is providing a range of cover specific to each business’s individual risks, manageable through an app.
This includes, general liability, which pays out if employees cause an accident at work, and professional liability, which covers legal fees if a business is sued for providing inadequate service.
Also on offer are commercial motor cover, and workers’ compensation coverage — which covers the wages and medical costs for a business if an employee is injured at work.
Back in March 2018, the company launched Live Certificate, a policy verification tool that allows businesses to prove their coverage to clients.