In 2022, as the technology market cooled and the insurtech sector went into decline, Israeli startup Next Insurance was forced to lay off employees. At the end of 2023 it raised a large amount, $365 million, but at a lower valuation than in its previous round, falling from $4 billion to $2.5 billion. Now, the company is being sold to one of its early investors, German insurance corporation Munich Re at a slightly higher valuation, $2.6 billion. The company has raised a total of $1.17 billion, according to the PitchBook database.
Munich Re is buying the 71% of Next Insurance that it does not already own, through Ergo Group, its main insurance unit. The acquisition is a cash deal.
Next Insurance develops and manages a digital platform for insuring small businesses in the US. It was founded nine years ago by Guy Goldstein, Alon Huri, and Nissim Tapiro. At the time of its last fund raising round in 2023 it reported that it had surpassed 500,000 active customers in the US through 1,300 different types of insurance. Like another Israeli insurtech company, Lemonade, which is active in the consume market, Next Insurance is based on artificial intelligence and machine learning to carry out smart underwriting and to approve within minutes a policy offer that matches the criteria of small business owners. According to LinkedIn, the company employs 730 people, 200 of them at its Kfar Sava headquarters.
Among the investors in the company, according to PitchBook, are Oren Zeev, through Zeev Ventures, Dovi Frances’s Group 11, TLV Partners, and more lately Redpoint Ventures, Nationwide Ventures, CapitalG, and several financial institutions, among them Bank Hapoalim, Migdal, and Psagot.
The last round also brought in two strategic investors: US insurance company Allstate and Allianz X, the digital investment arm of German insurance company Allianz. Allianz X helped Next Insurance to reach reinsurers, and thereby improve its profitability.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on March 20, 2025.
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