Aviva Ventures, the strategic investment arm of insurance firm Aviva, led a $10.4m series B round for US-based smart home device producer Roost on Wednesday.
Property and casualty insurance provider Desjardins Insurance and Fosun RZ Capital, a corporate venturing subsidiary of conglomerate Fosun, also participated in the round, which included undisclosed existing investors.
Roost has built a smart battery for use in home fire alarms as well as a smart water leak and freeze detector, both devices utilising technology based on its data sensor platform.
The company’s business model favours insurance firms offering the products to customers, and both Aviva and Desjardins are partners. It will use the series B funds for product development as it looks to expand into new devices.
Ben Luckett, managing director of UK-based Aviva Ventures, said: “As a corporate venture fund, we look for innovative businesses around the world that will shape the future of insurance and we are delighted to be entering the US market with this investment in Roost.
“In the UK, we have been offering Roost Smart Batteries to our home insurance customers and I am excited about how this investment supports our ambition to empower our customers to prevent bad things from happening, rather than fixing it when something goes wrong.”
Roost has now raised $17m in total, including $975,000 in seed funding from Legend Star, a corporate venturing subsidiary of conglomerate Legend Holdings, and venture capital firm DCM Ventures in 2014.
DCM returned for the company’s $5.5m series A round in 2015, which was led by VC firm RPM Ventures and backed by financial services provider USAA, Start Garden and Center Electric.