Amadeus Capital Partners has led a R$20m (US$9m) venture capital round for Brazil-based insurance price comparison company Bidu Holdings that also saw participation from Germany-based corporation Bertelsmann.
Amadeus made the investment through the Amadeus IV Digital Prosperity, a fund it is raising in which the cornerstone investor is telecommunications provider MTN. Amadeus and Bertelsmann joined Monashees Capital and Otto Capital Partners in the round.
Bidu operates an online platform that enables users to compare real-time insurance quotes from 10 Brazilian insurers.
“Brazil has a very big insurance market,” Pat Burtis, a partner at Amadeus, told Global Corporate Venturing. “On the auto side it’s about a $10bn premium market today and less than 1% is online so it’s a very traditional brokerage network, yet internet penetration is at 50% more or less and there are 100 million internet users in Brazil.
“There is a lot of online commerce there already – if you look at travel packages more than 50% are purchased online – so we see a big opportunity for growth in the online channel in the Brazilian market and the ability to bring new, first-time insured people into the market.
“Bidu tends to appeal to people who are internet savvy and who may not be comfortable, or may not have bought through a traditional broker where you’d go to a person and get a couple of quotes,” he added. “With Bidu it’s instantaneous, you’re getting a view of the entire market and the best price that’s available for you. We saw the potential for dramatic growth there once the market hits tipping point.”
A full interview with Pat Burtis about Amadeus Capital Partners and the Amadeus IV Digital Prosperity fund will be published on Global Corporate Venturing next week.