Insurtech Azur raises £13.3m to target new products and markets
Azur, a managing digital agent (MGA), has completed its series B funding round, raising £13.3m of funding and support from AIG, Ascot Group (owned by CPPIB, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board), Hyperion Insurance Group and the serial fintech angel and entrepreneur Richard Little.
The company said the new cash will enable it to expand its product set, enter new markets and invest in its technology platform.
Graham Elliott, CEO at Azur, said: “Azur created the category of Managing Digital Agent (MDA) and the completion of our fundraise will enable us to scale our business to design, build and underwrite digital insurance products for brokers, clients and insurers. Azur operates as a partner to the insurance market - our mission is to work with major insurers to help them digitally transform themselves. The investment commitment into Azur is clear evidence of that.”
Azur has two strands to its business - providing underwriting products for the high net worth insurance market in the UK and building end-to-end platforms for insurers which enable them to operate more effectively with brokers and end customers. Azur's platform is already live writing US admitted lines commercial insurance. Azur will launch new digital insurance products on the Azur platform on a regular basis for its broker partners.
Elliott added: “Demand for what Azur can deliver is being driven by the problems inherent in legacy systems. Today’s customer demands a better user experience than legacy insurance technology platforms are able to deliver. The deep understanding Azur has of insurance processes from our own underwriting helps power our ability to deliver a best-in-class modern cloud-based platform to deliver that user experience.”
Little said: "I'm very excited to follow on from my angel investment into the scale-up phase at Azur, and now to be joining the board of directors. I see great market potential for a cutting-edge, cloud-native multi-product insurance platform like Azur, and I like Azur's open approach of coming to market both as a regulated agency in London and as a technology partner to large insurers globally."
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