wefox Group

Market position

In 2019 the company described itself, and was reported, as Europe's number one insurtech platform, with more than 1,500 brokers and over 400,000 customers; it was later characterised in press coverage as a multibillion-dollar-valuation insurtech. Its current country businesses are positioned as Austria's leading all-in-one digital distribution platform for brokers and multi-agents, the leading player in the Dutch term-life market, and a top-ranked retail insurance distributor in Switzerland. It served more than 1 million customers through its distribution platforms.

Rather than bypassing human intermediaries, wefox works through independent brokers, combining broker relationships with digital tooling and automation; it pairs this distribution reach with in-house MGA capability, and formerly with its own licensed digital carrier ONE, whose modular, geo- and time-triggered products were designed to make cover proactive rather than reactive.

Technology

A digital insurance platform providing brokerage and consultation workflows, policy consolidation and a customer-facing app and web wallet, with automation of administrative and claims processes. The company has cited AI and machine learning for matching customers to products and near real-time claims processing, advanced data analytics for personalisation, and the use of IoT and other permissioned customer data to enable modular, timestamp- and location-triggered coverage.

Go-to-market

Distribution runs primarily through independent brokers and multi-agents who onboard their customers onto the platform — around 80% of platform customers came via brokers in 2019, with the remaining 20% signing up directly, in which case wefox acted as a lead generation and matching service for local brokers. The group also used direct-to-consumer sales through ONE and partnerships with established players such as Marsh and SBI for market entry.

Insurance brokers, multi-agents and other distribution partners, risk carriers, and retail insurance customers; the group's corporate entity is also described as serving individual and business customers. A partnership with Marsh was intended to extend the offering beyond personal lines to micro, small and medium-sized businesses in Continental Europe.

Geography

Headquartered in Berlin, Germany, with a European focus. Current business units operate in Austria, the Netherlands and Switzerland, the three markets targeted for expansion with its most recent funding. The corporate entity has been described as serving customers in Italy, Germany and Switzerland; Italian entities and a Liechtenstein carrier were divested during restructuring. Earlier international plans included Japan via the SBI-wefox partnership and China in connection with investor Creditease.

History

wefox raised a $28 million Series A in late 2016 and in March 2019 announced a $125 million (€111 million) Series B led by Mubadala Ventures — the first investment from Mubadala's newly created European investment fund — with Chinese investor Creditease participating and Goldman Sachs International advising; the round was described as the first tranche of the Series B and as the largest Series B raised by an insurtech at the time. Around the same period the company announced an Asian expansion partnership with SBI (formerly SoftBank Investment) targeting Japan and a strategic partnership with Marsh for SME coverage in Continental Europe. Earlier, New York-based Lemonade filed a complaint alleging wefox had reverse-engineered Lemonade to create ONE and infringed its intellectual property; the suit was dropped a few months later. Press coverage subsequently reported a $400 million raise at a $4.5 billion valuation and a further $55 million backed by Deutsche Bank and UniCredit. The group later completed a restructuring programme, divesting wefox Insurance AG (Liechtenstein) and the Italian wefox MGA and wefox Services Italy entities, and raised €151 million ($177 million) to fund a strategic focus on MGA and smart distribution, alongside a board reshuffle in which Julian Teicke, Fabian Wesemann, Dario Fazlic and Nikolaus Frei resigned and Joachim Müller (CEO of wefox Holding AG) and Prateek Puri of Searchlight Capital Partners joined.

Risks & controversies

Lemonade filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York alleging that wefox reverse-engineered Lemonade to create ONE and infringed Lemonade's intellectual property; the lawsuit was dropped a few months later. The group subsequently underwent a restructuring programme that involved divesting its Liechtenstein insurance carrier and its Italian MGA and services entities, a €75 million credit facility refinancing, and the departure of several board members including founder Julian Teicke. Coverage of its 2022-era $400 million round framed it against an insurtech funding downturn.