Merian Chrysalis approaching three quarters deployment with latest investments – Merian Chrysalis (MERI) has announced an investment of €14.4m, as part of a funding round conducted by wefox Group. The company invested by way of a convertible loan note.
wefox Group was founded in Berlin in 2015 and has already established itself as one of Europe’s largest and fastest growing insurtech assets. The wefox Group consists of two subsidiaries: wefox and ONE.
- wefox is Europe’s largest digital insurance platform with significant existing scale in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The wefox platform enables over 350,000 customers, 1,500 insurance broker agents and 300 insurance providers to transact and manage insurance products digitally. The wefox app and website acts as a digital wallet, where consumers can store details of their insurance policies, and also allows third-party insurance companies and brokers to achieve efficiencies through a high degree of automation.
- ONE was launched in February 2018 and is a fully digital insurance company distributing private liability and household policies in Germany. ONE is fully integrated with wefox and leverages the platform’s distribution capability and data sets to deliver best-in-class loss ratios and customer acquisition cost.
This funding round follows a successful Series B raise of US$125m in March 2019. wefox Group will use the proceeds of both rounds to consolidate broker pools in existing markets and for expansion across Europe, Asia and the US.
Nick Williamson, co-portfolio manager, noted: “The insurance industry is ripe for disruption and wefox Group is well placed to transform the sector through its digital proposition. The wefox Group management is incredibly ambitious, evidenced by the impressive progress made to date, and we look forward to working with them.”
MERI also increased its stake in Graphcore Limited
MERI has also acquired an additional £11.6m holding in Graphcore Limited from the open-ended UK small- and mid-cap equity funds managed by the company’s manager, Merian Global Investors (UK) Limited.
Following the completion of the wefox Group investment and the acquisition of additional shares in Graphcore Limited, the company will be approximately 75% fully invested.
MERI: Merian Chrysalis approaching three quarters deployment with latest investments