Cytora, a provider of AI-powered solutions for the commercial insurance industry, has secured GBP25 million in Series B funding round led by the EQT Ventures.
Other participants include existing investors Cambridge Innovation Capital, Parkwalk, and a number of angel investors. The funding will be used to accelerate the expansion of Cytora’s product suite and scaling into new geographies.
Cytora was founded and spun out of the University of Cambridge in 2014 by a team of machine learning scientists, data engineers and strategists. The founding team recognised that – unlike the simplicity of consumer car insurance – applying for commercial insurance is an arduous process that can take weeks. With its non-transparent pricing and use of outdated models, commercial insurance had not been adapted to the needs of modern society.
The team saw an opportunity to apply AI to public and proprietary data, including property construction features, company financials, and local weather – combined with an insurance company’s internal data – to better predict risk and ensure more transparent pricing.
Cytora’s software is already being used by some of the world’s largest insurers, including QBE, AXA XL, MS Amlin, and Starr, to inject efficiency and accuracy into their underwriting process. In addition, insurers have built new end-to-end quotation applications on top of Cytora’s APIs, enabling business owners to buy policies online in less than a minute, requiring only a business name and postcode to issue a quote.
“With this investment, we’re looking forward to widening our impact and helping accelerate the insurance industry’s digital transformation,” says Richard Hartley, co-founder and CEO at Cytora. “Today, we’re enabling insurers to underwrite at a fraction of the cost of traditional methods and price policies more accurately. Over the next 24 months, we’re going to scale across the insurance value chain and move into new geographies. The EQT Ventures team brings unrivalled expertise and they’ve supported the growth of some of Europe’s leading businesses. We’re looking forward to partnering with them on the exciting journey ahead.”
“We’re seeing a radical transformation in insurance, with organisations now expecting the same level of simplicity, transparency and convenience from their business insurers as they’re getting from consumer insurers and digital banks,” says Lyle Fong, Partner and investment advisor at EQT Ventures. “Changing core underwriting processes that have been set for decades is hard, but of all the founders I’ve met, Richard and Aeneas have the ambition, grit, and drive to do it.”
