Japanese insurer Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance (MSI) has led a $36m Series C round in Israeli cloud-based mobility cybersecurity and data analytics platform Upstream Security and reached a partnership with the latter.

This is part of a larger funding round for Upstream, which is planned to be unveiled in the second quarter of this year.

I.D.I. Insurance Company also joined the financing round for Upstream, whose cybersecurity platform is designed for connected vehicles as well as smart mobility services.

MSI along with I.D.I. set up a joint technology hub in Israel earlier in 2021.

Upstream co-founder and CEO Yoav Levy said: “The Upstream and MSI partnership will open new data-driven opportunities for both automotive manufacturers, insurance companies, and their customers.

“We are excited to work with MSI to expand our existing mobility data platform and to develop deep and long-lasting relationships with their customers and automotive OEMs in Japan.”

MSI aims to disrupt the car insurance space through its alliance with Upstream.

It is aimed at helping insurance firms gather insights for insurance-related areas such as risk management utilising connected vehicle data.

Upstream’s machine learning and big data platform is said to expand the data analytics capabilities of the Japanese insurer.

This will help the insurer offer additional risk-related services on the basis of driver usage and behaviour.

Commenting on the partnership, MSI director, managing executive officer, Masashi Ippongi said: “As part of our ‘Vision 2021’, medium term business plan, we at MSI aim to improve the customer experience through digitalisation.

“Upstream’s data analytics vantage will help MSI satisfy the consumer demand for higher-value and next-gen insurance products, applications, and services.”

MSI is a unit of MS&AD Insurance Group Holdings.