British startup Marshmallow Exploded over the years using data science innovations to establish automobile insurance policies for immigrants and other consumers who have been neglected or assessed in traditional insurance. Now, with one million drivers insured and a profitable annual execution rate of $ 500 million, Marshmallow has raised $ 90 million to develop.
Marshmallow plans to use funding to switch to financial services, as well as more insurance products which, hope, appeal to a population of people who – despite the frightening effects of Brexit – growing.
“We consider migration as a huge opportunity,” said CEO Oliver Kent-Braham in an interview. He noted that in the United Kingdom, there are more people who come out of the workforce than there are, with 1.2 million migrants recorded in the United Kingdom in 2024 only. “We need a migration to put more people at work, and we want to help people move and integrate into the United Kingdom”
In the opinion of Marshmallow, this integration has just been able to drive your own insured vehicle and soon, the startup hopes, the purchase of home insurance and obtaining loans.
Marshmallow plans to launch its first loan product later this year, Kent-Braham said, on the way to building a “one-stop shop” for all that is financial and assurance that a new arrival in the United Kingdom may need to adapt to life.
This tour is almost divided 50-50 between equity and debt, according to Kent-Braham, and an assessment of just over $ 2 billion. To put this in context, Marshmallow raised the funding for the last time to $ 1.25 billion in 2021.
The startup experienced considerable growth on the business front at that time. In 2021, Marshmallow had only assured 100,000 people. Now, in cities like London, the insured number of one million is reinforced with an open -air advertising campaign that is difficult to miss.
Portage Capital leads the Round, with the participation of BlackRock and Columbia Lake Partners. The previous donors of the company included Passion Capital, Investc and Scor. Marshmallow has raised around $ 220 million to date.
In particular, the new round has been underway since at least JanuaryAnd Kent-Braham noted that part of the equity was the convertible debt due in 2023.
Marshmallow funding arrives at a complex time for insurance startups in Europe.
On the one hand, there is the dark story of Wefox.
Supported by Softbank, Omers, Salesforce and dozens of others, Wefox’s assessment has reached as many $ 4.5 billion by 2023. Two years later, after years of loss and complications in its distributed / broker -based commercial model, WeFox has dropped in difficult times. The company was Sell parts of your business And collect Rescue buoy financing has keep off.
However, there are also brighter signs of insurech startups that build more sustainable companies. And those who can demonstrate a solid technological history receive the attention of investors.
Last week, Omimomo – a new startup outside Poland – recovered a major strategic investor that has invested $ 10 million in an assessment of more than $ 200 million. It was the first time that Omiimo has collected funds outside the funds after having become profitable while being booted. Like Marshmallow, the startup started with automotive insurance and rethinks actuarial formulas and uses AI to make new breakthroughs in risk prediction.
While data science and AI quickly become table challenges for insurance startups, there are other details on Marshmallow which distinguish it from the pack and even from some of its greatest competitors (such as the Mega-Détailletant Tesco).
The ideas of inclusiveness and diversity that underlie the way Marshmallow addresses its target customers is deep to the startup.
Kent-Braham co-founded Marshmallow, based in London, with his identical twin, Alexander and David Goaté. The twins really look a lot even. “You could really talk to Alexandre right now!” Oliver joked when we talked about this story. More seriously, however, the startup is also a scarcity underrepresented in another way.
This is one of what seems to be only two “Unicorn” startups in the United Kingdom of a black founder, the other being Worldremit. Statistics are not extremely encouraging outside the United Kingdom either; A 2024 study revealed that through the United Kingdom and the United States, only 3% of startups with evaluations of more than a billion dollars have black founders.
At a time when the diversity, equity and inclusion programs are dismantled in the United States, it should be noted that the investors of Marshmallow see a particular force precisely because of his diversified leadership.
“This is a very strong founding team,” said Devon Kirk, GP and Co-Chief of Portage Capital Solutions, in an interview. “We believe that financial services benefit from different angles and that managers offer innovative solutions to meet these needs.”
