American Express Ventures, the venture capital arm of payment services firm American Express, invested $6m in US-based online small-business insurer Next Insurance on Monday.
The capital will be added to the $29m in series A funding Next raised in May this year. Munich Re/HSB Ventures, the corporate venturing vehicle for reinsurer Munich Re, led the May tranche, which included insurance companies Markel and Nationwide Mutual.
Next Insurance provides bespoke insurance policies for small businesses such as yoga instructors, personal trainers, photographers, handymen, plumbers and other service contractors.
The latest funding will be used to target new business sectors and extend the company’s product range.
Next received $13m in a March 2016 seed round led by Zeev Ventures, the investment vehicle for entrepreneur Oren Zeev, with participation from VC firms TLV Partners and Ribbit Capital.
Sofya Pogreb, Next Insurance’s chief operating officer, said: “We strongly believe the collaboration with American Express opens the door to tremendous partnership opportunities, given the company’s trusted relationships with millions of small business customers.
“Amex’s strategy of helping businesses grow through education and tools resonates strongly with the vision the Next Insurance is building: helping our customers thrive.”