Advance Venture Partners, the venture capital partnership backed by media company Advance Publications, led US-based digital homeowners insurance provider Openly’s $40m series B round yesterday.
The round included internet technology provider Google’s artificial intelligence fund, Gradient Ventures, as well as property and casualty reinsurance firm Greenlight Re and VC firms PJC and Obvious Ventures.
Openly has built an online platform that provides home insurance through a network of some 3,000 independent agents, using big data to streamline the process.
The series B funds will be channelled into an expansion drive expected to take it from six US states to most of the country over the course of the next year.
Gradient Ventures led the company’s $7.65m seed round in November 2019, at which time it said its investors included Greenlight Re, PJC and Techstars Ventures. It added $15m seven months later, in a series A round led by Obvious Ventures and backed by Gradient Ventures and PJC.
Gradient Ventures partner Zach Bratun-Glennon said: “Openly provides a best-in-class product to customers and agents that want better, tech-enabled insurance products.
“We continue to invest in this business because we see the rapid adoption and rave reviews that Openly is achieving. The growth is exceptional, but Openly also underwrites particularly low-risk, big-policy customers and turns them into long-term fans of the product.”
