South Korean digital insurance carrier Carrot General Insurance has secured a fresh funding of 300 billion Korean won (US $25 million).
Led by private equity firm Affirma Capital, the capital will be raised across two connected rounds with wide participation of existing investors.
Carrot has successfully closed the initial funding of 175 billion won (US $145 million) this past week and the remaining 125 billion (US $105 million) is expected to be raised through the extended round during Q4 this year.
The latest financing is Carrot’s third round of funding and it took just over a year since it last raised $90 million through rights offering.
A number of investors involved from previous rounds are participating, including Hanwha Group, Stic Investments, and Altos Ventures.
The new share distribution will now give Hanwha 50.6% of voting power, 7.8% for SK Telecom, 3.9% for Tmap Mobility, Hyundai Motor Group 2.7%, Altos Ventures 10.2%, Stic Investments 15.5% and Affirma 9.2%; although the stakes may be adjusted as the extended round closes later current year.
Upon completing its extended round of financing next quarter, Carrot’s valuation will reach 1 trillion won (US $850 million).
With the fresh capital, Carrot intends to strengthen its position in the existing market, advance its tech capacity and expand its in-house pipelines, with the plan being to reach break-even by 2024 and go public by 2025.
“I am delighted to welcome our new investors and thank our existing shareholders for their continued support and confidence in Carrot,” said Richard Moon, the recently named new CEO of Carrot.
“We have made very significant milestone while keeping the J-curve growth at even a faster pace, which I believe is driven by surging demand for simple and innovative insurance products to meet evolving customer needs in today’s world.” He continued, “Our big focus will be on agile and open innovation, which will speed up product development and technological innovation to fast-forward the future of insurance.”
