By David G. Barry
Mubadala Investment Company,
which invests on behalf of the Government of Abu Dhabi, believes it has an
outlier in its portfolio.
At a time when many venture-backed companies are raising new rounds at reduced
valuations, wefox, a German insurtech company, has done the opposite in
a round led by Mubadala.
The Berlin-based company raised $400 million in debt and equity at a valuation
of $4.5 billion. The Series D round comes a year after wefox was valued at $3
billion after completing a $650 million round. Mubadala took part in that round
as well as the company’s $235 million Series B round done in 2019.
Joining Mubadala in the new round were OMERS
Ventures – the venture arm of the Canadian pension plan – LGT, EDBI,
Horizons Ventures and Target Global.
wefox is a fully licensed digital insurance company that sells insurance
through intermediaries and not directly to consumers. It has more than 2
million customers and had revenue of $320 million in 2021. The company said it
is on track to have 3 million customers and $600 million by the end of the
year. wefox intends to use the funding for product development and to expand
across Europe and ultimately Asia and the United States.
In a prepared statement, Ibrahim Ajami, Mubadala’s head of ventures and growth,
said that unlike “most direct-to-consumer insurtechs, wefox acts as an
ecosystem enabler – empowering the various distribution channels instead of
competing with them. This model has allowed wefox to scale quickly and
sustainably, providing brokers and customers alike a platform that seamlessly
digitizes the insurance market.”
Mubadala has assets of $284 billion and interests across multiple sectors and
asset classes. In addition to Abu Dhabi, it has offices in London, Rio de
Janeiro, Moscow, New York, San Francisco and Beijing.