XL Innovate, the strategic investment arm of insurance and reinsurance firm XL Catlin, has led a $16.5m series C round for Israel-based maritime data provider Windward.
Venture capital firm Horizons Ventures, VC fund Aleph and private investors including Marc Benioff also participated in the round, which Windward said boosted its overall funding to $38.9m.
Founded in 2010, Windward runs a software platform that uses data science to quantify maritime risk. It can track and analyse patterns formed by shipping routes and supplies information to marine insurance providers to help them judge risk more accurately.
The company will use the funding to increase the size of its team and expand its UK office while looking to grow its insurance services offering.
Ami Daniel, co-founder and chief executive of Windward, said: “If there is one investor you want to work with in insurtech, it is XL Innovate. We know they only back the most promising, scalable technologies in the space.
“We are delighted they chose us and look forward to putting their funds and expertise to good use, to offer our unique analytics and prediction tools to marine insurers around the world.”
Horizons Ventures led a $10.8m series A round for Windward in 2015 that included Aleph and individual investor CEO Tom Glocer, two years after Aleph had made a $5m investment in the company. Windward has not disclosed details of series B funding.