Fintech startup Policygenius bags $125 million Series E funding to grow its online insurance marketplace

We wrote about PolicyGenius just a few months before the pandemic started in early 2020. At the time, the online insurance marketplace startup raised $100M in Series D funding to grow its insurance products for an auto repair, personal care, and restaurants verticals. A lot has changed since our last coverage of the company.

Since its 2019 Series D financing, Policygenius has ramped up its investment in exclusive, integrated no-exam life insurance offerings to address the COVID-related impacts on life insurance medical exams and to improve the customer experience. The company is now on pace to be the single largest distribution platform for term life insurance this year.

Today, Policygenius announced it has raised $125 million in Series E growth capital, bringing the company’s total funding to more than $250 million. The company will use the new capital infusion to continue to invest in the growth of its core businesses of life, disability, home, and auto insurance, as well as new no-exam life insurance offerings and Policygenius Pro.

The round is backed by all existing major investors including KKR, Norwest Venture Partners, and Revolution Ventures. New investors included several of the largest annuity and life insurance carriers in North America, like Brighthouse Financial, Global Atlantic Financial Group, iA Financial Group, Lincoln Financial, and Pacific Life.

The Brooklyn, New York-based Policygenius was founded in 2014 by two former McKinsey consultants, CEO Jennifer Fitzgerald and Francois de Lame. The duo saw a gap in the insurance industry and dedicated themselves to shifting the industry online and into the hands of the consumer. Through its highly tailored Insurance Checkup™, users can discover their coverage gaps and review solutions for their exact needs. The company provides the only place online to shop for life, long-term disability, renters, and pet insurance through its highly accurate quoting engines that offer side-by-side comparisons of tailored policies.

Since its founding eight years ago, Policygenius has built integrations with the largest and most trusted insurance carriers in the industry and developed proprietary technology for quoting, underwriting, and fulfillment. In 2021 the company wrote $40 billion of new life insurance coverage, nearly 70% more than it wrote in 2019. Policygenius is on pace to be the single largest distribution platform for term life insurance this year.

The company’s home and auto insurance business has also grown significantly, with new written premiums having increased more than 6x from 2019 to 2021. Policygenius continues to be the only tech-enabled brokerage and distribution platform to have successfully scaled and diversified across life and home and auto insurance.

In a statement, Fitzgerald said, “Over the past eight years, we’ve invested in the critical areas of technology, operations, and product development to deliver the best outcomes for our customers, carriers, and distribution partners.” She added, “With the support of our new and existing investors, we’re excited to expand our already-large reach across the trillion-dollar insurance market.”