Marshmallow, UK insurance for immigrants, increases $ 90 million in $ 2b+ valuation

Start of the UK Monsters It has been blown over the years using innovations in data science for building car insurance policies for immigrants and other consumers who have been overlooked or invoiced by traditional insurance. Now, with a million insured drivers and a profitable annual revenue rate of $ 500 million, Marshmallow has increased a new $ 90 million to expand.

Marshmallow plans to use funding to move to financial services, as well as more insurance products that hopes to appeal to a population of people who – despite Brexit’s cold effects – grows.

“We are thinking of immigration as a huge opportunity,” CEO Oliver Kent-Braham said in an interview. He noted that in the United Kingdom, there are more people coming out of the workforce than they get in, with 1.2 million immigrants being recorded to come to the United Kingdom only in 2024. “We need migration to put more people at work and we want to help people move into

In Marshmallow’s view, this integration comes with the ability to drive your own insured vehicle and soon, starting hopes, home insurance market and loan receiving.

Marshmallow plans to launch its first borrowing product later this year, Kent-Braham said on the way to build a “one-stop shop” for all finances and insurance that a new arrival in the United Kingdom may need to adapt to life.

This round is about 50-50 between shares and debt, according to Kent-Braham, and assesses only more than $ 2 billion. To put it in the context, Marshmallow has recently increased funding to $ 1.25 billion in 2021.

The start has seen significant growth on the business front at that time. In 2021, Marshmallow had only secured 100,000 people. Now, in cities like London, the insured number of 1 million is reinforced with a pink outdoor advertising campaign that is difficult to lose.

Portage Capital drives the round, with the participation of Partners Blackrock and Columbia Lake. Previous supporters of the company included Passion Capital, Invetec and Scor. Marshmallow has raised about $ 220 million to date.

Specifically, the new round is in the works at least JanuaryAnd Kent-Braham noted that part of the shares was the convertible debt set in 2023.

Marshmallow funding comes at a complex moment for insurance in Europe.

On the one hand, there is the gloomy story of Wefox.

Supported by Softbank, Omers, SalesForce and dozens of others, Wefox valuation increased to so much $ 4.5 billion by 2023. Just two years later, after years of loss and complications in the distributed/broker -based business model, Wefox has fallen. The company was Sale of parts of his business and receipt financing to I remain in life.

However, there are also some brighter signs of Insurtech principles that create more viable businesses. And those who can show a strong technological story get attention from investors.

Just last week, Ominimo – a new start from Poland – won an important strategic investor who invested $ 10 million with over $ 200 million valued. It was the first time ominimo put out of money after becoming profitable while bootstrappted. Like Marshmallow, the start started with car insurance and reviews the actuarial types and using AI to make new raids on risk prediction.

While data science and AI quickly take place table entries for newly established fuses, there are other details about Marshmallow that stand out from the package and even some of its biggest competitors (such as Mega-Retaler Tesco).

The ideas of participation and diversity that support how Marshmallow is approaching its customer base are deeply aimed at starting.

Kent-Braham founded Marshmallow based in London with the same twin, Alexander and David Goaté. Twins really look a lot similarly. “You could really talk to Alexander right now!” Oliver jokes when we talked about this story. More serious, however, starting is a sub -representable rarity in another way.

It is one of what seems to be only two “unicorn” newly formed businesses in the United Kingdom by a black founder, the other is Worldremit. Statistics do not encourage extremely out of the United Kingdom. A 2024 study found that throughout the United Kingdom and the US, only 3% of newly established businesses with over $ 1 billion have black founders.

At a time when the diversity, shares and inclusion programs are disassembled, it is remarkable that Marshmallow investors see specific strength because of its different leadership.

“This is a very strong founding team,” said Devon Kirk, GP and co-head of Portage Capital Solutions, in an interview. “We believe that financial services benefit from different angles and leaders who come with innovative solutions to meet these needs.”