German Insurtech wefox Raises $400M, Increasing Valuation to $4.5B
Berlin insurtech wefox reports it has closed a Series D funding round of US$400 million and increased its valuation to US$4.5 billion.
The round included both equity and debt. Abu Dhabi sovereign investor Mubadala Investment Co. led the equity portion of the raise with participation from Eurazeo, LGT, Horizons Ventures, OMERS Ventures and Target Global.
The round sees wefox increase its valuation from US$3 billion to US$4.5 billion since last June, which is says bucks the trend currently experienced in the insurtech market and more broadly across the tech sector.
Wefox is a fully licensed digital insurance company that sells insurance through intermediaries and not directly to customers. Wefox offers agents digital tools that help them streamline and automate labor intensive processes. Agents sell nine out of every 10 policies in Europe, leaving direct-to-consumer competitors like Lemonade fighting for a smaller piece of the market.
Julian Teicke, CEO and founder of wefox, said the new valuation of US$4.5 billion is “a clear validation” of his firm’s agent-oriented business model.
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Teicke said the insurtech has more than two million customers and has doubled revenues over the last year reaching US$320. The company has set US$600 million in revenues and three million customers as targets to reach by the end of 2022.
The insurer, which is currently in Germany, Switzerland and Poland, intends to use the funding for product development and to expand across Europe and thereafter Asia and the U.S.
The company has 1,300 employees today, up from 550 employees in 2021, and expects to reach 2000 employees by the end of 2022.
Ibrahim Ajami, head of Mubadala Ventures, said that wefox “acts as an ecosystem enabler, empowering the various distribution channels instead of competing with them.” Ajami said he believes this model has allowed wefox to scale quickly and sustainably.
Wefox was founded in 2015 by Teicke, Fabian Wesemann and Dario Fazlic.