The venture capital arm of Munich Re Group has backed a $10 million Series A funding round for travel insurance start-up Faye.
Munich Re Ventures led the round along with existing investors Viola Ventures and F2 Venture Capital. Additional investors include Menora Tech and Mike Nelson, former CEO of Global Travel Insurance at Allianz.
This news follows on shortly after Faye announced the launch of its Travel Advisor Portal, a one-stop-shop where travel advisors and agencies can offer, learn about and manage travel insurance with Faye.
In addition, the travel insurance start-up recently released a newly developed API to enable seamless integration with travel distributors who wish to offer a new level of travel protection to their customers, fully embedded into their offerings.
Faye Co-Founder & CEO, Elad Schaffer, said: “Faye fundamentally views travel insurance differently. Until Faye, travel insurance was often thought of as a reimbursement service. Faye’s approach combines travel insurance with real-time assistance, trip alerts, a 24/7 concierge and even financial support. Our role is to help ensure that you have a smooth adventure that’s memorable for the right reasons. We’ve built an offering that travelers will want to use for life, so bringing Faye along is just as obvious as bringing your passport. This approach is working: we continue to see rapid growth in travelers using Faye, and coming back for more – month over month.”
Sidra Ahmed, Investment Director, Munich Re Ventures, commented: “With the end consumer in mind, Faye provides transparent, digitally-integrated comprehensive coverage, and a real-time approach to managing the many potential hiccups that can happen on a trip,” says Ahmed who has joined Faye’s board of directors. “Faye has successfully married the worlds of travel, insurtech and fintech to seamlessly enable consumers to protect their travel investments. We are excited to join the Faye team on their journey (pun intended).”
Mike Nelson, former CEO, Global Travel Insurance at Allianz, added: “Travel insurance is a fast-growing industry with evolving needs in the areas of customer experience, product relevance and digital innovation. The team at Faye has impressed me with their vision and accomplishments and has already attracted enormous interest from partners and travel distributors, just one year in the market, and amid economic uncertainty; that’s no easy feat. It was a no-brainer to deepen my support of this top-notch team and product, going from advisor to both advisor and investor.”
Elsewhere, Faye explained that it expects to quadruple its revenue in 2023 alone, having earned millions in premiums in its first year in the market. The company also states that it plans to more than double its pool of travel advisors and distribution partners which is already sitting in the hundreds.
Faye is the second startup founded by serial entrepreneurs and travel enthusiasts Elad Schaffer (CEO) and Daniel Green (CTO). In the coming months, the duo plans to dedicate this capital injection to fuel growth, develop new insurance offerings, support scale through automation and seamless integrations, and forge new partnerships with top brands and distribution partners.
