On EQT Ventures’ investment in Luko, building the European home insurance leader

Rania Belkahia
eqtventures
Published in
3 min readDec 7, 2020

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Luko’s co-founders — Benoit Bourdel (left) & Raphaël Vullierme (right)

Today Luko — one of the fastest-growing European insurtech leaders that prioritises social responsibility when protecting homes — announces it has raised €50 million in Series B funding led by EQT Ventures to deliver the best experience in home insurance, putting transparency and technology at its core. Existing investors Accel,​ Founders Fund and Speedinvest also participated in the round, alongside angels with insurance and technology backgrounds, including ​Assaf Wand (CEO and co-founder of US unicorn ​Hippo Insurance)​.

At EQT Ventures, we have been closely monitoring the insurance space over the past years. While we have made investments in services helping incumbents on their digital transformation journey (Cytora), we have also been looking in parallel at the emergence of neo-insurers in Europe. From aggregators, distributors, Managing General Agents to full-stack insurers, there are many players trying to change this slow-moving industry for the better. Insurance is a very big pie, representing €1.3T of premiums in Europe alone across a multitude of products (home, motor, health, life, casualty, etc).

Additionally, the desire for customer-centric products and strong positive social impact has dramatically impacted the way consumers choose their products and services. Most notably, 73% of Millenials are willing to pay extra for sustainable offerings. Insurance has been no stranger to this shift with consumers looking for brands aligning their business objectives with a positive impact on society. In light of those waves, we have been looking for a team embodying these emerging trends.

Enter Raphaël and Benoit, founders of Luko, who started the business on the back of a simple vision: consumers look for services they can trust and love. In the context of insurance, this isn’t easy to come across. Opaque terms and conditions, long claims cycles, insurance doesn’t exactly rhyme with delight. Raphaël and Benoit set out to change this by building Luko as a simple, transparent, and sustainable offering.

B-corp certified, Luko respects high social and environmental standards and is committed to progress. But beyond certifications and press releases, Luko has built sustainability and transparency at the core of their business model with the Giveback: every euro left in their claims pool at the end of the year is donated to charities chosen by their customers, no extra profit on a good year, it all goes to those who need it the most!

By placing social responsibility and prevention at its core, Luko has struck a chord with a growing base of users looking to align their values with purpose-driven businesses. Don’t take my word for it, check out those raving reviews!

Unsurprisingly, happy customers talk about products they like and refer them which has led to Luko’s spectacular growth recently. In no less than a year the team has grown more than 6x and recently hit 100k policyholders.

We are proud to announce that we have led their €50 million Series B to further accelerate their road to democratizing customer-first, transparent, and socially responsible insurance products. Driven by a stellar team of technologists and industry specialists, we are looking forward to supporting their growth as they take on Europe!

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Rania Belkahia
eqtventures

Partner at EQT Ventures