December 3, 2019― Cuvva, the insurance disruptor, that began as an app offering pay-as-you-drive motor insurance, is about to take on the UK’s biggest insurers having raised £15 million ($19 million) of venture capital backing to target the long-term motor insurance business.

RTP Global, Breega and Digital Horizon have joined seed investors LocalGlobe, Techstars Ventures, Tekton and Seedcamp to invest in the app-based insurance platform, which recently announced the appointment of the Lloyd’s of London chairman as its chair. Angel investors from the insurance sector, including Dominic Burke, the CEO of Jardine Lloyd Thompson and Faisal Galaria, the former chief strategy and investments officer of GoCompare, have also put in capital.

Cuvva’s Series A funding comes as the company prepares to launch a pay-monthly insurance product for the first time, a key step in its ambition to provide one gateway app to serve all consumer insurance needs.

Freddy Macnamara, founder said: “The way insurance is sold hasn’t kept up with the way people live their lives now. We buy lots of goods and services via flexible subscriptions to suit our on-demand lifestyles. Why shouldn’t you be able to do that for insurance?

“I started Cuvva when I couldn’t find flexible insurance to help me share my car. Four years on from launch we are still discovering how big the problem we are solving really is. We’re now selling 3% of all UK motor insurance policies but we’ve got so much further to go. Cuvva is going to be the place where you buy all your insurance, all through our mobile app.”

The pay-monthly motor product will launch early in 2020 and could cut average annual bills for car owners significantly. Cuvva plans to cut out all middlemen including brokers and comparison websites, which charge insurers about £70 on each policy sold. Unlike legacy insurers, Cuvva will not charge a fee to spread payments over the year and it will not penalise loyal customers with dual pricing. The startup will offer the same savings, whether you are signing up as a new customer or a returning customer. It also won’t charge admin fees to alter personal details, like a change in job title.

“The way motor insurance is sold is particularly unfair and inflexible but we can make it cheaper by cutting out the middlemen and removing the penalties for paying monthly, which hurt younger drivers or lower-mileage drivers disproportionately.”

“The insurance industry across Europe is ready for a fresh approach. The UK has a long history of initiating change in the way that insurance is sold and Cuvva has devised a product that has incredible appeal for a new generation of car owners and borrowers. We are thrilled to be able to begin this journey to build a whole new way of buying insurance with Freddy and the team,” Anton Inshutin, managing partner at RTP Global, said.

“Cuvva has an exciting vision for what a customer-centric insurer will look like and is unafraid to take on the middlemen in this sector and dismantle a raft of ‘traditional’ fees and penalties. Their fundraising also comes at a time when there is real appetite for innovation in insurance,” Ben Marrel, partner at Breega, said.

Alan Vaksman, founder and managing partner of Digital Horizon:

“I see a fundamental shift in demand for insurance from offline products adapted for websites, to the truly digital, mobile-first offering. We believe the aggregator dominated market model will be challenged strongly by digital insurance products and the adoption will be very fast. The founders of Cuvva have a solid track record of building great digital products and I believe they are in the right place at the right time with the right team”.

Since pioneering hourly insurance in 2016, Cuvva has sold more than 40 million hours of insurance and has over 250,000 customers, becoming the UK’s most downloaded insurance app. It has also expanded beyond insurance aimed at drivers who want to borrow a friend’s car into flexible single trip travel cover.

The London-based company will use the proceeds of its fundraising to build the team, adding engineers, developers, marketeers and customer operations staff to its 80-strong team. Over the next 18 months, it expects to double in size and already has a 30 strong in-house customer operations team.

Cuvva’s app also includes features such as MOT reminders, tax reminders and advice on where to buy the cheapest petrol. The platform promises exceptional customer service with in-app live support that offers one minute response time, 24 hours a day.

About the companies

Cuvva is building a new kind of insurance that’s flexible, and simple. The insurance startup sold its first policy in 2016. Since then, the mobile app has sold over a million policies. The idea came about after founder Freddy Macnamara couldn’t lend out his car easily, so he set out to build flexible insurance tailored around people’s needs. Cuvva connects customers directly with insurers, providing comprehensive cover within minutes, and 24/7 customer support. Pioneering short-term insurance, Cuvva was the first to provide both car insurance by the hour and insurance via an app in the UK.

So far Cuvva has expanded to offer personal car, learner, van, and travel insurance.

Shaping clear, fair and flexible insurance has led Cuvva to secure funding from brilliant investors, including RTP Global, LocalGlobe, Breega, Seedcamp, Digital Horizon, Techstars, and Tekton, to name but a few.

For further information visit: www.cuvva.com

RTP Global is a Venture Capital firm focused on early-stage technology investments. It supports young companies from various industries with strategic know-how and a broad global network. RTP Global has invested in over 50 companies worldwide, including 5 multi-billion public companies: Yandex, EPAM, Delivery Hero, RingCentral, and Datadog.

RTP Global was founded in 2000 under the name ru-Net by serial entrepreneur Leonid Boguslavsky, who has a PhD in Computer Science. He developed one of the leading IT integration solutions for software and hardware manufacturer Oracle, which he then sold to PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and subsequently became a partner there. RTP Global has offices in New York, Moscow and Bangalore.

Breega is a founder-friendly VC, with €250M under management, investing in promising European high tech startups at Seed/Series A stage. Breega provides much more than just capital. Built by founders for founders, Breega supports its portfolio companies through each phase of their development, providing them with free-of-charge operational expertise (HR, business development, marketing & legal) and international development opportunities.

Digital Horizon is an international investment company that combines a venture fund and a venture builder. The Digital Horizon venture fund invests in early-stage start-ups that have working products and promising solutions for the financial industry, e-commerce, education and enterprise software. The venture builder creates breakthrough projects in finance, retail, marketing, and media. Digital Horizon’s team possesses unique expertise in its target industries and extensive network with strategic partners, funds and developers.