Insurance app start-up Trov raises $US45 million

Suncorp-backed insurance tech start-up Trov has closed a $US45 million ($59.4m) Series D funding round.

Insurer Suncorp tipped $US5m into Trov’s $US25.5m ­Series C round, and reinvested for this Series D round.

Suncorp-backed insurance tech start-up Trov has closed a $US45 million ($59.4m) Series D funding round, bringing the on-demand insurance firm’s total funding to $US85m.

The San Francisco-based company, which has staff in Sydney and launched here last year through a partnership with Suncorp, said the raising was led by Munich RE and Sompo Japan Nipponkoa who will bring Trov to Japan.

Its app, targeted at millennials, lets users instantly turn on or off insurance for items such as iPhones and laptops, using algorithmic pricing and micro-duration policies.

“This adds to a pretty decent balance sheet for a start-up, and gives us the ability to push out geographically, and we’ll be expanding out our product line with a private label capability,” CEO and founder Scott Walchek said.

“We’re building applications that will go out across new types of risk like connected home, connected car and connected workplace, so we’ll be working on that with this new capital.

“And we’ll be expanding the categories of products you can insure. Right now the biggest complaint is there aren’t enough things covered. We want to move into things like jewellery and bi­cycles, and that takes a deeper technology capability.”

Mr Walchek said with the global expansion Trov was becoming one of the world’s leading insurance technology start-ups.

“We won’t talk about valuation but we’ve returned terrific shareholder (value) since we started and our series C investors are happy with the increase in pre-money valuation,” he said.

“We’re quite fortunate we have interested parties in the transformation of insurance through technology. We’re in multiple continents and we have a very active pipeline, and because of that we’re very capital-attractive. And I’m pleased we didn’t have to dilute a lot.”

Mr Walchek said his firm was performing strongly in Australia, which was the company’s first market. He said 65 per cent of Australian customers did not switch off the insurance once they had switched it on.

Insurer Suncorp tipped $US5m into Trov’s $US25.5m ­Series C round, and reinvested for this Series D round.

“Increasingly customers, particularly those in the millennial generation, are looking for new platforms to provide financial services in a flexible and engaging way. Trov is a great example of a new and innovative way for customers to protect what matters most to them,” Suncorp chief ­Michael Cameron said.