Ladder is shaking up life insurance, and Fort Ross Ventures believes in its mission
Life insurance probably isn’t the first product or service that comes to mind when you think about disruption. It’s something that everyone needs, of course, but it’s easy to take for granted and has been around forever (since the early 18th century, in fact). You may also assume that the people who want life insurance already have it, and that they’re perfectly happy with the existing options they have for buying it.
As it turns out, neither of those assumptions is completely valid. A 2020 study by Life Happens and LIMRA found that U.S. life insurance ownership has fallen nine percentage points over the last decade, and that twice as many people would like to buy their life insurance online compared to 10 years ago. That’s a clear signal that there is demand for a new and better way for life insurance to be sold than the way it has to this point.
How Ladder is transforming life insurance
Ladder has shown it has the best ideas for providing the innovation that life insurance requires. Since its founding in 2015, the California-based company has used technology to meet customers where they want to buy their insurance, with a 100% digital experience and real-time underwriting. That’s allowed Ladder to tap into demand that many may not have even known existed — Ladder’s average customer age is more than 10 years younger than the industry average.
It’s also growing quickly: Not only is Ladder planning on doubling the size of its team over the next year thanks to quadrupling its revenues over the last year, but it also announced that it is now the only digital life insurance company in operation, launching Ladder Life Insurance Company to become the first 100% vertically integrated life insurtech. Yet Ladder’s leadership team, headed by CEO and co-founder Jamie Hale, has proven its vision is designed to hold up in the long term, with excellent risk ratings and above average customer retention scores.
Why Fort Ross is backing Ladder
When Ladder sought investors for its Series D funding round, we saw an opportunity to support a company with the chance to become the household name in life insurance. That made the decision to join the $100M round, led by Thomvest Ventures and OMERS Growth Equity, a relatively easy one.
“We believe in digitizing insurance products, making them easier to access without losing the critical characteristics of providing consumers with a sense of comfort and financial security,” said Fort Ross Ventures partner Ratan Singh. “Jamie and the team at Ladder Life have been doing just that in the life insurance segment for the last five years with great success! Their impressive NPS score of 82 compared to the industry’s single digits and strong revenue growth of 4.5x over last year led me to believe Ladder Life may have figured out the balance. The product expansion opportunity and the traction to date convinced me that Ladder Life could be one of the leaders, if not the leader in the segment, since the incumbents are largely losing on the digital strategy.”
“I know first hand how life insurance can change a life,” said Hale. “With our carrier in operation and this new round of funding, we are in the position to greatly accelerate innovation in service of families and communities. I am so excited to see our original vision continue to materialize.”
The Series D round will give Ladder an even stronger foundation to fulfill its mission to make life insurance more accessible, affordable and beloved . With its mix of proprietary technology and outstanding leadership, we believe it has the potential to join established unicorns like Standard.ai, eToro and ClearCover in the Fort Ross Ventures portfolio.
To learn more about Ladder, please visit ladderlife.com.
