Latin American insurtech Pier has secured $14.5m in a Series A investment led by Brazilian venture capital firm Monashees.
The round also had the participation of Canary, Mercado Livre and BTG Pactual.
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Pier, which utilises artificial intelligence to offer insurance services to customers, plans to go beyond with Series B investors next year.
Founded in 2018, the insurtech specialises in cell phone insurance, which can be purchased online in just three clicks.
Within one year of its establishment, the firm is said to have attracted around 15000 customers to cell phone insurance. It has paid R$ 5.6m in refunds so far.
Pier began to provide auto insurance last year, after it saw an opportunity in the Brazilian market where only 30% of the entire auto fleet are insured.
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By GlobalDataTh insurtech first tested minimum viable product (MVP) in the Brazilian city of Belo Horizonte and launched it state of São Paulo this year.
Pier co-founder and CEO Igor Mascarenhas said: “With the received funds, we will make major investments to increase the auto market. We want to be in every state of Brazil in the first semester of 2021.”
He added: “We offer the best flow to buy auto insurance in the world. There is no one who can approve an auto insurance policy as fast as we do, and in such a simple way. Not even insurtechs that are references all over the globe. We have developed an extremely robust technology and added a very refined anti-fraud predictive capability.”
Monashees partner Marcelo Lima said: “The insurance market is very large and presents several opportunities for innovation through the use of technology, whether in customer experience, product design, distribution or use of sensors. As in other financial segments, this market will accelerate a lot.
“Pier has an excellent team and is very well positioned to lead this movement, offer great value to customers and become a giant company.”
