London-based Flock, a company using real-time data to provide insurance to commercial motor fleets, has raised £31.7m ($38m) in Series B capital despite a challenging funding environment for insurtech startups.
Founded by Antton Peña and Ed Leon Klinger in 2015, Flock was born out of academic research into insuring the commercial drone industry before pivoting to commercial motor fleets in 2018.
Much like its larger insurtech rival Zego, which achieved a $1bn unicorn valuation in 2021, Flock uses telematics devices in vehicles to provide real-time data on driving behaviour.
Those that stick within parameters that demonstrate safe driving are rewarded with cheaper insurance premiums. The company claims those using Flock have reduced crash frequency by 10%.
“With our radically different insurance model, enabled by an immense amount of data, we hope to actively reduce the number of people needlessly killed or injured on the road,” said Klinger, Flock’s CEO.
Klinger added: “The best possible claim experience is no claim at all. We want to help our fleet customers predict and prevent crashes – before they even take place”.
Flock works with insurance brokers, underwriters and original vehicle manufacturers. The company is focused solely on the commercial fleet market and says it now has more than 600 of these customers.
Among them are Jaguar Land Rover, car subscription company Onto, and a third of the UK’s independent Amazon fleets.
Flock said it will use the capital boost to launch in new geographies and “significantly” increase the size of its data science and engineering teams, along with “more than doubling” its UK headcount in the coming years.
The sizeable funding round bucks the trend of declining insurtech investment – and overall tech investment levels – in an uncertain macroeconomic environment.
In the final three months of 2022, global quarterly insurtech funding fell to its lowest level since the first quarter of 2020.
The Series B round was led by Octopus Ventures, while also attracting capital from CommerzVentures.
All of Flock’s existing institutional backers – including Social Capital, Dig Ventures, Anthemis and Foresight Ventures – participated in the raise.
Malcolm Ferguson, partner at Octopus Ventures, said, “Flock has a vision that can make the world safer not just for today’s vehicles but for the connected and autonomous vehicles of tomorrow. That vision of changing the world for the better is one we share at Octopus Ventures.”
Flock previously raised £12m in a Series A funding round back in July 2021.
The post Commercial fleet insurtech startup Flock raises £31.7m appeared first on UKTN | UK Tech News.
