Descartes Underwriting, a Paris-based insurtech company specialising in next-generation parametric insurance, announced that it has raised $120M (approx €107M) in a Series B round of funding.
The round was led by Highland Europe alongside Eurazeo, with participation from existing investors Serena, Cathay Innovation and Blackfin Capital Partners. Two new entrants, Seaya Ventures and Mundi Ventures, also participated.
The Series B round comes 18 months after the company raised $18.5M (approx €16.5M) funding in a Series A round.
Fund utilisation
The company claims that the latest investment will be used to cement its leadership position in corporate insurance worldwide.
The company will also use the capital to scale up its approach to corporate and public entity risk exposures, grow its technology platform, expand into new lines of business, and target larger deals.
“The corporate insurance market is undergoing a momentous shift driven by a changing climate, the growing impact of natural catastrophes, and a rise in emerging risks”, says Tanguy Touffut, CEO and co-founder of Descartes Underwriting. “Our aim is to be the global leader in delivering truly revolutionary solutions to brokers, corporations, and public entities for these evolving exposures. With the support of our partners, we will continue to develop and deploy a new generation of insurance products that are entirely tech-driven, simpler, more transparent, and quicker to pay in the event of a loss – adapted for the new risks corporations and governments increasingly face.”
Descartes Underwriting: What you need to know
Founded by Sebastien Piguet and Tanguy Touffut, the French company provides products that cover the full spectrum of natural catastrophes and emerging risk exposures.
The company’s parametric insurance solutions utilises data sources combined with AI to drive transformation within an evolving risk landscape and challenge traditional insurance models.
Descartes works with corporate brokers to offer affordable insurance solutions to enable their clients to better manage their exposure to climate-related and emerging risks in all regions globally
The full range of parametric products is developed by a dedicated team of 50 engineers and data scientists. Currently, the company serves more than 200 corporate clients including many Fortune 500 companies.
Headquartered in Paris, Descartes Underwriting has offices in Singapore, Sydney, New York, Houston, Denver, and London.
Investors
Highland Europe invests in growth-stage software and internet companies. The VC has raised over €1.8B and has invested in companies such as Adjust, AMCS, Camunda, ContentSquare, Featurespace, and more.
Stan Laurent, Partner at Highland Europe, says, “Tanguy, Sébastien, and Kevin have developed the most innovative and successful set of insurance products we have seen in the increasingly relevant climate risk sector. We are impressed by their team, culture, set of partners, and ambition, and look forward to helping them scale as a global next-generation corporate insurance business.”
Eurazeo is a global investment company with a diversified portfolio of €27B in assets under management. With its considerable private equity, venture capital, private debt as well as real estate and infrastructure asset expertise, Eurazeo accompanies companies of all sizes.
Guillaume d’Audiffret, Managing Director at Eurazeo, says, “With climate change and many other emerging risks including most recently the pandemic, corporates and public sector companies are increasingly experiencing the need to access comprehensive and transparent insurance that can cover them efficiently against critical external events. Since its inception three years ago, and thanks to its highly experienced team, Descartes has become a clear category leader in the parametric insurance market.”
