London-based Urban Jungle has secured £1.6m from both new and existing investors after having been forced to close a previous round early due to Covid-19.
Jimmy Williams (pictured) and Greg Smyth founded 2016 after Williams had struggled to gain insurance for himself while living with friends in London. This inspired him to try to fill a gap in the market left behind by traditional insurers, which would enable it to tap into the millennial generation who tend to rent properties rather than buying them.
Having teamed up with Smyth, they launched Urban Jungle to offer flexible contents insurance for as little as £5 per month.
As part of their growth, they raised £2.5m in March 2020. “We wanted to raise more in the spring but, with lockdown restrictions pending, we had to close the round early,” said Williams, CEO and co-founder of Urban Jungle. “However, since then, the business has performed incredibly well and we are seeing opportunities for new products and new markets.”
The company has been backed by both entrepreneurs and investors, including former Prudential CEO Rob Devey, Octopus Group CEO Simon Rogerson and Funding Circle co-founder James Meekings.
The new £1.6m cash injection brings the total raised by Urban Jungle to £7.8m. The company now has over 25,000 customers, 23 employees and is growing at over 20% per month.
“2020 has been a really tough year for everyone, but we’re lucky that people always need insurance, especially when times are tough, and even more customers are looking for a value focused provider like us,” said Williams.
“Lockdown changed the insurance market in many ways. For us, there are more people working from home and investing in expensive laptops which they want to cover. There’s also been a big rise in bike ownership and these are treasured items that people want to protect.
“We’ll be hiring more people in the coming months, investing heavily in marketing and giving the traditional market some serious competition. The insurance sector has been calling for a newcomer to disrupt it for some time and we’re doing just that.”
Urban Jungle’s new funding comes as investment into the InsurTech space seems to be in decline due to the pandemic.
Investors have increased the amount injected into the industry every year since 2016. That year, $1.68bn was invested into the sector across 186 deals. By 2019, that figure had skyrocketed to $5.96bn, according to FinTech Global’s research. However, only $2.01bn was invested into the sector in the first six months of 2020.
