Insurtech startup Setoo raises $9.3 million for EU expansion plans and build new products

In today’s digital world, consumers expect businesses to provide services that are tailored to their exact needs and deliver a great customer experience. Whilst consumers have concerns for which they would like to buy protection, they are increasingly unwilling to spend money on what they see as irrelevant insurance products that don’t meet their needs. This impacts e-businesses negatively, who consider insurance to be a major component of their ancillary revenues and a means to create a great customer experience.

The Oxford, England-based insurance and “Protection-as-a-Service” startup, Setoo, is solving this problem by empowering e-businesses that understand their consumer best to quickly and easily build and integrate tailor-made, simple insurance products that are automatically embedded into the customer journey. Today, Setoo announced it has raised $9.3 million Series A for EU expansion plans and to build new products. The funding was led by the main investor, Kamet, AXA’s Insurtech startup studio. The latest round brings the total amount raised to date to about $12 million.

Founded in 2017 by Eyal Gluska and Noam Shapira, Setoo is disrupting the insurance market by enabling e-businesses to create and sell great protection tailored to the consumers’ needs and fit for the digital age. E-businesses benefit from one-click underwriting directly on their digital assets and providing personalised protection with automatic compensation for their consumers. By using these super targeted products, e-businesses such as e-commerce sites and online travel agents (OTAs) are able to meet their specific business goals, whether they are looking to delight their customers, generate new revenue streams, or differentiate within their crowded markets.

The highly scalable platform covers risks that relate to exogenous events that could ruin the customer journey. For example, an OTA selling connecting flights from multiple airlines can provide insurance to cover for missed flight connections if preceding flights are delayed or cancelled. In these situations, Setoo sends an automated SMS to the consumer on behalf of the OTA, explaining that a full refund has been provided and offering alternative flight suggestions. In another scenario, a tour operator selling ski holidays could insure against a lack of snow, fully automating payment and removing the hassle of the claims process for the customer.

To provide this service, Setoo opted to use the Managing General Agent (MGA) model, so the company is licensed by the FCA to distribute products on behalf of insurers in the EU. Insurance companies that partner with Setoo benefit from working with the brands employing some of the best marketers in the world, who design and distribute new protections that are highly consumer-centric and innovative.

“Our investment in Setoo supports AXA’s strategy to build more impactful insurance platforms as one of our four key priorities for innovation and to become a partner for the end customer,” commented Guillaume Borie, Chief Innovation Officer of the Group, AXA. “Setoo’s platform enables digital businesses to create, through automation, new types of insurance that are more relevant to consumers. Drawing on our expertise, Setoo is building a fantastic on-demand platform that will future-proof its clients’ businesses,” he added.

“Setoo stands for simplicity – in French ‘c’est tout’ means ‘that’s it’. My Co-founder Eyal Gluska and I chose the name to symbolise how simple and quick it is to create effective new protection products using the platform, and the simplicity of the products created for the consumer. This investment from Kamet is key to helping us expand across the EU and build further new products to empower more businesses to take control of insurance for their consumers,” commented Noam Shapira, Setoo’s Co-CEO.