China’s CreditEase backs $125m Series B for European insurtech startup wefox
CreditEase FinTech Investment Fund (CEFIF), an investment arm of Beijing-based fintech conglomerate CreditEase, has participated in a $125-million Series B investment round for Berlin-based insurtech firm wefox Group, according to an announcement.
Founded in 2014, wefox Group is the parent company of ONE Insurance and wefox brands that operate across Europe.
The financing, which wefox said is the largest Series B round raised by a European insurtech firm, was joined by Abu Dhabi-headquartered Mubadala’s newly created European Ventures Fund. The fund was launched in 2018 with a $400-million corpus to invest in European tech companies.
The financing will wefox Group expand into the European brokerage market and boost its efforts to create an all-in-one insurance platform that offers personalised services.
“Insurance is up for the most radical change, which presents a huge opportunity for us to connect all insurers globally through our platform and become the largest insurance company in the world,” said Julian Teicke, founder and CEO of wefox Group.
The company claims to serve more than 1500 brokers and over 400,000 customers across Europe, and generate revenue of $40 million.
Prior to the Series B round, wefox had raised a $28-million Series A in 2016. Its investor base includes Target Global, Salesforce Ventures, Seedcamp, Idinvest and Sound Ventures.
The investment in wefox is the fourth fintech investment by CEFIF, which has an equivalent of $1 billion in total committed capital. It has previously invested in ShieldPay, Onfido and Funding Circle. Funding Circle had in 2018 raised 300 million pounds in its London IPO.