Insurtech startup banks $108 million Series A

Three-year-old insurtech startup Honey Insurance has raised $108 million in a Series A that’s lured in US investors

Founded by entrepreneur Richard Joffe, cofounder of US-based Park Assist and Stella.ai, Honey launched in 2021. It raised a record $15.5 million in a Seed round led by underwriting partner RACQ and other institutional investors, including AGL, Metricon, Mirvac and PEXA.

The Series A was led by US-based Gallatin Point Capital, making its first Australian investment. The private investment firm from Greenwich, Connecticut, has backed several emerging insurance companies and late last year, poured US$1.25 billion into Trusted Resource Underwriters Exchange, founded in 2o2o, as part of a partnership with American Family Insurance Group.

The startup now has around 1% of the Australia home insurance market, pitching what it calls “smart” insurance involving Honey-branded sensors build by US tech startup Notion to detect problems that lead to common claims, such as water leaks, open doors and windows, temperature change and sounding smoke alarms. The insurer offers the kit for free along with a premium discount.

Australia’s insurance industry is worth around $10 billion and over the last 18 months homeowners have been hit hard by premium increases of 40% or more amid losses in the sector following a range of natural disasters.

ASX-listed digital property exchange platform PEXA signed a collaboration deal with Honey two years ago to offer its insurance via the PEXA Key app.

The nine-figure Series A is one of the largest for an Australian startup behind the likes of Wollongong BNPL unicorn Scalapay, $210 million 2021 raise and Canberra-based air traffic management startup Skykraft’s 2023 $120 million round.