Schimek: New strategic investors supporting Bolttech’s bid to close trillion-dollar protection gap

By Chris Munro

June 6 - (The Insurer) - Bolttech’s new strategic investors Iberis Capital and Sumitomo Corporation offer far more than just funding as they also provide meaningful support to the insurtech’s bid to close the trillion-dollar protection gap, founder and CEO Rob Schimek has told The Insurer TV.

Singapore-based Bolttech on Wednesday announced that it had closed its Series C funding round and raised $147 million, giving the insurtech a valuation of over $2.1 billion.

Bolttech in December announced the Series C’s launch, through which it had forecast raising over $100 million via a funding round led by Dragon Fund, MUFG and by Liquidity, with Baillie Gifford and Generali, via its private equity arm Lion River, also participating.

Addressing attendees at the Insurtech Insights USA conference in New York on Wednesday, Bolttech founder and group CEO Schimek confirmed that Portuguese private equity and venture capital manager Iberis Capital and Sumitomo Corporation, one of Japan’s largest trading houses, had also joined the fundraise as strategic investors.

In an interview with The Insurer TV on the sidelines of the conference, Schimek said Bolttech had been in lengthy discussions with Iberis Capital about becoming an investor, and it was expected the PE firm would signup “maybe even as far back as December when were doing the (initial Series C) announcement.”

As Schimek explained, Iberis Capital’s mandate is to support businesses based within the Iberia region, namely Spain and Portugal.

With Bolttech having what Schimek described as one of its “most important tech hubs” in Portugal, the insurtech was able to secure the Iberis Capital investment.

The Bolttech chief also noted how the Sumitomo Corporation investment has already yielded benefits, with the Japanese firm having entered into a joint venture with the insurtech through which it will deliver embedded insurance programs and complementary end-to-end services for partners in Asia.

Sumitomo Corporation’s partnership with Bolttech is “not just as a capital provider, but it’s also a capability provider”, Schimek said.

The addition of Iberis Capital and Sumitomo Corporation, along with the other investors, support Bolttech’s bid to “address a glaring need in society, which is there is a definite protection gap between those who need protection and those who have it”, Schimek said.

As the executive explained, the protection gap manifests itself in four ways – climate change, the aging population, increases urbanization, and the advancement of technology which generates significant opportunities but also great risks.

The newly secured investors “are helping us to close that protection gap”, said Schimek.

“(Sometimes) with respect to helping us to provide new research and development to create new products and new capabilities,” said Schimek.

“Sometimes to build the technology that it takes to deliver those capabilities, and sometimes to make sure that we're present in the geographies with the capabilities and the human beings that are required to be successful in those geographies,” he added.

Watch the full 14-minute interview in full to hear more on…

• What the new strategic investors give Bolttech that it did not previously have

• How Bolttech completed the Series C amid a still challenging funding environment

• What Bolttech will use the $147 million raised for

• Future capital raising options, including a possible IPO

• And what the immediate and near-term future holds for Bolttech

• And more...