Insurer American Family Insurance has agreed to buy US-based insurance technology provider Bold Penguin for an undisclosed amount, providing an exit for insurance and risk management services provider Lockton.
Bold Penguin provides a digital platform that helps commercial insurance brokers and distributors select and receive quotes on products from a number of insurance providers. Following the close of the deal, it will operate under the same branding, as a subsidiary of American Family.
American Family was an early investor in the company through its strategic investment arm, American Family Ventures, Bold Penguin said this week. Insurtech investment firm Pivot Investment Partners led an undisclosed round for Bold Penguin in 2018.
The company secured an undisclosed amount of series A-1 funding from investors including MTech Capital in early 2019, adding $32m in a series B round in September that year that included Lockton, MTech, Hudson Structured Capital Management, Lightstone Ventures and Guggenheim Partners.
The series B round increased Bold Penguin’s overall funding to $50m. It agreed to acquire insurance document software provider RiskGenius in October 2020, for an undisclosed amount.
American Family Insurance CEO-elect William Westrate in an interview with rating agency S&P said the American Family Ventures arm looked for investment opportunities “at an early stage in companies where we can get a lens into their development, a lens into their capabilities, the potential for their business and how it could impact” the insurer and the industry as a whole.
American Family was previously a minority investor in Networked Insights in 2013 and then purchasing the portion of the technology company that it did not already own in December 2017.