Igloo, a regional insurtech in Asia, has closed a US$36 million Pre-Series C funding round. Global investment firm Eurazeo, through its insurtech fund backed by the insurer BNP Paribas Cardif, led the investment.
At the same time, Openspace and La Maison, who previously participated in Igloo’s Series B and Series B+ fundraises, also joined in on the investment.
According to the announcement, Eurazeo invested through its insurtech fund focused on innovative technologies and business ideas disrupting the insurance industry, whilst Openspace’s investment in this round comes via its mid-stage fund, OSV+, which focuses on the Series C and D rounds of transformative technology companies across Southeast Asia.
Matthieu Baret, Managing Partner – Venture at Eurazeo, commented: “We are thrilled to invest in Igloo with the insurer BNP Paribas Cardif. With our investments in China, Indonesia, India, and Singapore, we’re extending our footprint with the ambition to become a leading player in Asia.”
Albert Shyy, Managing Director, Eurazeo, said: “We have been following Igloo for some time now and have been impressed with their evolution into a diversified insurance platform across channels and products. The insurance market in Southeast Asia is still very underpenetrated and we believe Igloo is in a strong position to help solve this by making insurance more easily accessible and understandable for consumers.”
From what we understand, the new funding will be put towards both horizontal and vertical M&A opportunities – having added intermediary licenses across SEA this year, in addition to its license in Indonesia.
The company will also look to increase its workforce by 20% across engineering, commercial, strategy and insurance-focused verticals.
Moreover, this latest round comes just 10 months after Igloo’s previous Series B+ fundraise led by BlueOrchard-managed InsuResilience Investment Fund II. In total, the company has now raised US$100 million.
In addition, Igloo’s Pre-Series C round closed at an increased valuation of 50% from its Series B+ round in 2022, as the business continues to move closer to profitability in 2024.
Jessica Huang Pouleur, Partner, Openspace Ventures, added: “We’re always thrilled when the opportunity arises to keep investing in a company at the mid-stage that we’ve previously backed – and Igloo’s recent growth and steps towards profitability have given us further confidence in the business’s ability to capture and expand the insurance market in Southeast Asia. Our team has been actively involved in working with Igloo to this point, and those existing relationships will enable us to seamlessly continue adding operational and commercial value as the business integrates, acquires, and strengthens capabilities.”
Raunak Mehta, Co-Founder and CEO at Igloo, commented: “The support from our investors is a testament to Igloo’s steady growth and resilience amidst macro headwinds and a validation of our strategy. We are the only insurtech in Southeast Asia with a robust profit and loss (P&L) statement, a diverse multi-product portfolio, and an extensive distribution line.”
