New York Life Ventures, the corporate venturing unit set up by insurance firm New York Life, had invested a total of $200m since it was launched in 2012, it announced yesterday.
The capital was committed through 29 direct investments, and the unit has also facilitated proof-of-concept tests for 100 startups in partnership with other divisions of New York Life. The unit operates a research and development lab as well as regular hackathons.
Companies that have received funding from New York Life Ventures include machine learning technology developer DataRobot, robo-advisor developer SigFig and Skycure, the mobile threat detection software provider acquired by Symantec for $250m in July 2017.
Joel Albarella, has headed New York Life Ventures since its inception. He said: “As one of the first life insurers to enter the corporate venture capital space, we are a first-mover in successfully connecting New York Life with some of the best and brightest firms in the startup ecosystem.
“We continue to see great promise in our ever-growing network of early stage companies, and believe that innovation to date has just scratched the surface of what is possible in the insurance industry.”