Sweden-based online insurance portal Bima raised $30m on Monday from investors including insurance group Allianz and online lending platform Creditease.
Investment firm LeapFrog Investments led the round while the corporates were represented by Allianz X and CreditEase Fintech Investment Fund respectively.
Bima provides mobile-based life, health and accident insurance policies across 14 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
The proceeds will be used to ramp up product development efforts to tackle increased demand for telemedicine and digital insurance products due to the ongoing Covid-19 health threat. The company will also expand into additional markets in Africa and Asia.
Allianz X had provided $96.6m for Bima in a December 2017 round that came eight months after it closed a series C round featuring telecommunications firms Millicom, Digicel and Axiata Group – the latter through its Axiata Digital Fund – at $55.2m.
The round’s $38.4m first tranche was closed in 2015 and inclded LeapFrog Investments, Kinnevik, Gustaf Agartson, Anders Olsson, Mathilda Ström and Stephan Wilcke in addition to Millicom and Digicel.
Millicom, Kinnevik and LeapFrog Investments had all participated in a $22m round for the company in 2014. The three had previously invested $7.1m in Bima in 2013 according to media reports, though that capital may have been rolled into the round the following year.
Allianz X chief executive Nazim Cetin said: “We are happy to continue our partnership with Bima and jointly deliver telemedicine and remote healthcare services in developing markets.
“We believe the demand for these services will continue to increase and want to manifest Bima’s leading position in the market by providing support with our experience and network.”
