Hippo Insurance Raises $70M As Data-Driven Quoting Attracts Investors

The world of startups with unusual names gained another chunk of cash today.

That’s right, Hippo Insurance picked up $70 million in a Series C. The round was led by Felicis Ventures and Lennar Corporation. Other participants included Comcast Ventures, Horizon Ventures, and others.

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This is the third known financing for the company, which raised a $25 million Series B back in January led by Comcast and Fifth Wall. The round brings the company’s total known funding to $109 million.

As a refresher, Hippo, which was founded in 2015 and officially launched last year, focuses on home insurance. The company, which works with insurance partners that underwrite the policies, claims that its main differentiator is the quick sign-up model (you can get a quote in one minute), which is driven by data and artificial intelligence.

Per the company’s press release, since its Series B in January Hippo launched in 11 states. Its coverage areas now include California, Nevada, Arizona, Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Missouri, Illinois, Maryland, among other states, according to its website.

Of course, Hippo is not the only company focused on home insurance. Its competitors include Lemonade, which is also data and AI-driven. That startup provides home and renters insurance and has raised $180 million since its founding in 2018.

The U.S. insurtech industry, generally, has grown significantly in the past year. Companies like Root Insurance, which is a mobile-first company focused on car insurance, and Next Insurance, which provides insurance to small business owners, have been raking in venture capital. For evidence, take a look at the chart below.

Investment in insurtech companies has reached over $1.6 billion this year alone, an increase of about 50 percent from 2017, according to Crunchbase.

Buying quickly online has been the norm for car and health insurance for some time now. These days more companies are moving into mobile access and relying on data aggregation and machine learning to produce quotes. Clearly, investors are confident that this trend will continue across many insurance categories from cars, to homes, to health.

Illustration Credi: Li Anne Dias