Insurtech Hippo secures capital investment from Mitsui Sumitomo for expansion

Hippo, a US insurtech focused on the home insurance market, has secured a capital investment of $350 million from Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Company, a subsidiary of MS&AD Insurance Group Holdings.

The proceeds will support Hippo's expansion and product roll out in additional US states. Hippo aims to reach 95 percent of the US homeowners population in the next year, as well as provide additional capital for its insurance and reinsurance companies.

The investment follows a strategic partnership between the two companies, which began with MS&AD Ventures’ initial investment in Hippo’s Series E funding round in July, 2020.

In addition to the funding, Hippo and Mitsui Sumitomo plan to sign a reinsurance treaty, wherein Mitsui Sumitomo will take on a portion of risk to support Hippo’s Insurance Company, a property and casualty insurer.

Assaf Wand, Hippo's CEO and co-founder, said: “Mitsui Sumitomo is one of the best when it comes to risk management and shares our desire to leverage data and analytics to create better outcomes for homeowners. We’re excited to deepen our partnership and gain additional catastrophe modeling expertise from one of the world’s largest insurers.”

Shinichiro Funabiki, director, vice president executive officer at Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Company, said: “We value the innovation that Hippo brought to the home insurance space through its advanced classification of risk. We look forward to learning from one another through our strategic partnership, providing high value-added products and services to customers of both companies in the U.S. and Japan, and to continue to support Hippo, which quickly became a top insurtech in the U.S. home insurance space and is beloved by its customers.”