InsurTech Futures: Urban Jungle completes £1m investment round

InsurTech start-up Urban Jungle has completed a £1m round of seed investment from a group of angel investors.

The London-based managing general agent said it would use the money to build a “better home insurance experience” for renters.

According to the start-up, the round was led by Rob Devey, former chief executive officer of Prudential UK and HBOS Insurance, who also acts as the firm’s board advisor.

The group of angel investors also included a number of the early investors in UK FinTech firm Funding Circle, the investment group Octopus, and BoughtByMany.

Founders
Urban Jungle was founded in late 2016 and distributes products directly through its website, but the MGA stated it has also built software that allows distribution partners, including brokers, to sell its products on their own sites.

According to founders Jimmy Williams and Greg Smyth, the business was created as a response to young people being “excluded from insurance” because the industry was “failing to keep pace with their changing lifestyles”.

The MGA noted that it aims to transform the insurance experience by rebuilding the tech stack, using modern technologies, for example through smartphone-first design, and using machine learning to improve risk scoring.

Mission
Williams commented: “This investment marks a big step towards our mission to build an insurance provider that customers love.

“Through 2017, we focused on building a business that our customers can rely on 100% when something goes wrong. In 2018 we’ll vastly increase the choice of products for our customers, and make all of our products even easier to use.”

Devey added: “I’m delighted to be backing Urban Jungle again. I’m very excited about the huge opportunity to transform the insurance industry using technology, and think this team is superbly well placed to capitalise on that.

“They have proven their ability to execute to a very highly quality over the past year, and I’m confident that they will only accelerate from here.”

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