附近上门

Life insurance startup brought in its second investment in 2020, this time a $70 million Series C funding round.

Subscribe to the 附近上门 Daily

, co-founder and CEO of Bestow, founded the Dallas company with three years ago after having started two other insurance-related companies.

The goal? Digitizing what has been traditionally an analog product. O鈥橞anion estimates 85 percent of Bestow applicants are new to life insurance. The company鈥檚 platform enables a majority of customers to buy a policy right from their mobile device in as little as five minutes, without a phone screening, doctor鈥檚 visit or blood test.

鈥淥ur vision we had when founding, is that a dislocation exists in the consumer demand for life, but yet they don鈥檛 go purchase it,鈥� said O鈥橞anion. 鈥淭hat metric of being first-time purchasers is something we track closely and is indicative of us finding new distribution channels to sell into new cohorts.鈥�

Bestow鈥檚 median customer age is 39, and a healthy 35-year old female can purchase $500,000 in coverage over a 20-year policy for as little as $22.50 per month, he said.

The Series C funding came from a group of new and existing investors, including , , , , and . In total, Bestow has raised $145 million, including a $50 million Series B led by Valar, according to 附近上门 data.

Bestow has hit a number of milestones in the second half of the year. Buoyed by sales increases of more than 450 percent year over year, the company of in December to become a national carrier. It also launched its product while additionally expanding into fintech and independent agent channels.

O鈥橞anion intends to use the funding to launch new products in 2021, as well as scale its platform services and distribution channels. This year, the company hired more than 70 new team members and rounded out its leadership team. Next year, he expects to grow the workforce significantly, up to approximately 200, especially on engineering and customer service.

He estimates the life insurance market to include $150 billion in potential premiums in the U.S. alone.

鈥淭here are tens of millions of people who have dependents, and we have learned this year that American households are fragile,鈥� O鈥橞anion said. 鈥淭hey don鈥檛 have the tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands should tragedy happen. We offer a product that, should someone pass away, provides a bridge for the future.鈥�

Illustration: