Next Insurance eyeing more acquisitions after announcing $250 million funding at $4 billion valuation

Israeli insurtech company Next Insurance announced on Wednesday that it is raising $250 million at a $4 billion valuation, as revealed by Calcalist last month. The company raised $250 million at a $2 billion valuation just six months ago. Since then, Next Insurance announced two acquisitions, added new strategic partners, and doubled its gross written premium.

The round was led by FinTLV Ventures and Battery Ventures with participation from CapitalG, Group 11, Zeev Ventures, Founders Circle and G Squared bringing the company's total funding raised to more than $880 million.

FinTLV Ventures founder and managing partner Gil Arazi and Battery Ventures general partner Michael Brown, will join as board observers.

The new funding will be used for additional acquisitions and to continue and bolster the company's workforce. Next currently employs 550 people, 160 of them in Israel. The company plans to hire an additional 100 people for its R&D team in Kfar Saba this year and 200 employees for its offices in Palo Alto.

Next Insurance was founded in 2016 by Israeli entrepreneurs Nissim Tapiro, Guy Goldstein, and Alon Huri. Goldstein was among the co-founders of fintech startup Check Inc., which was acquired by software giant Intuit Inc. in 2014. Huri and Tapiro were both top executives at the company.

Next Insurance announced in March that it was acquiring U.S.-based digital insurance agency AP Intego, just three months after buying Juniper Labs. AP Intego boasts annual earnings of $200 million, on an equal footing to those of Next Insurance itself, meaning that following the merger, the Israeli startup will reach annual revenues of $400 million.

"This latest round of financing is a validation of our vision which is to make it dramatically easier for small business owners to get the insurance coverage they need by removing friction from the customer experience," said Guy Goldstein, co-founder and CEO of Next Insurance. "It starts with developing a comprehensive digital product portfolio under one roof, continues with leveraging technology that improves the customer experience, and ends with a network of integrated partnerships that bring policy purchasing to the customer within the systems they already use."

"Next Insurance's full-stack approach to providing coverage for small businesses has created a radical paradigm shift in the legacy insurance industry," said Gil Arazi, founder and managing partner at FinTLV Ventures. "This value proposition, combined with a differentiated focus on machine learning and growing an innovative product portfolio has created unstoppable momentum that is undoubtedly changing how small businesses shop and purchase insurance."