Clearspeed has raised $60m (£44m) in series D funding, bringing the company’s total funding to $110m.
The round was led by Align Private Capital, with participation from IronGate Capital Advisors, Bravo Victor Venture Capital, KBW Ventures and private investor US Army general David H. Petraeus.
Speaking to Insurance Post, CEO Alex Martin, pictured, explained that the firm will be in “high growth” mode for the next two to three years.
"On the adoption curve, you have folks like Zurich, who are very innovative and willing to step out early, then there are other folks that are more patient and willing to wait and see."
He shared that the new capital has been earmarked for further penetrating its existing markets and sectors, geographical expansion into Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Canada, as well as product innovation.
The UK will be a specific focus for this penetration, as Martin highlighted it as his favourite market.
“There’s an incredible amount of innovation happening [in the UK] for a number of reasons, so we’re very bullish on expanding our footprint in the UK,” he asserted.
When asked whether Clearspeed plans to list on a stock exchange or sell soon, as is typical of firms completing a series D funding round, Martin said: “You’re absolutely right, where we are on our journey, we’re hopefully going to be looking at a range of options.
“But right now, it’s absolute laser focus on the next two or three years of high growth and then exceeding all of our current projections to put us in a position where we have optionality in the market, whatever the strategy may be.”
Insurance penetration
Martin explained that Clearspeed intends to expand its products with existing customers in order to further penetrate the insurance market.
The firm will consider how to add features requested by clients and evolve its product roadmap to match the needs of the organisations it works with.
Martin shared that Clearspeed also hopes to expand into new insurance lines and areas of the value chain for existing clients.
“The fraud ecosystem is where we got started, and we’ve been migrating into the claims universe, but now we’d like to be at the point of sale, helping people get quotes bound and risks adjusted,” Martin explained.
Clearspeed is also looking to acquire new customers within insurance as part of its market penetration plan.
Martin said: “On the adoption curve, you have folks like Zurich, who are very innovative and willing to step out early, then there are other folks that are more patient and willing to wait and see.
“Along that curve, we’ll be moving back to meet those customers where they are and find out how we can help them augment their strategies.”
This comes after Clearspeed executive vice president for the UK, EMEA and APAC Manjit Rana confirmed to Insurance Post in October that the firm was in talks with the top eight insurers in the UK.
This article was originally published by Insurance POST
