CPE News (12.14.2022) – Walnut Insurance has raised $4 million in seed funding led by ATB Financial and NAventures, National Bank of Canada’s corporate venture capital arm, with participation of Harvest Venture Partners, Highline Beta, and N49P.
Founded by Derek Szeto and Adrien Niblock, Toronto based Walnut is a insurtech that has built technology infrastructure to power embedded insurance for retailers, financial services, and consumer platforms. Walnut’s platform makes insurance simple and convenient – creating greater accessibility for underserved audiences across life, home, renters, auto, and embedded product lines.
photo credit: Walnut Insurance
News Release
Walnut Insurance Raises $4M to Power Embedded Insurance for Enterprise Brands and Accelerate Growth
December 14, 2022 07:30 AM Eastern Standard Time
TORONTO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Walnut Insurance, a technology company that provides infrastructure for embedded insurance, announced their $4M seed round, with ATB Financial and NAventures, National Bank of Canada’s corporate venture capital arm, as the lead investors. Other investors include Harvest Venture Partners, Highline Beta, and N49P.
Walnut, a leader in embedded insurance, has broken down barriers that historically have prevented businesses from being able to build an insurance offering into their product. As brands look to build deeper relationships with customers and expand their revenue streams, Walnut provides the core infrastructure and access to a broad set of insurance products that can be embedded into or alongside consumer experiences, much like embedded payment and lending. With their API-driven distribution approach, Walnut has partnered with Neo Financial, one of the largest fintechs in Canada to help the company tap into the over $160 billion dollar Canadian insurance market.
“Our seed raise is a testament to the continuing revolution inside the insurance industry,” said Derek Szeto, Co-founder and CEO of Walnut Insurance. “We are empowering partners to be able to offer innovative insurance products to millions of customers without the need for years of heavy investment or diversion of significant resources from other ongoing priorities. Embedded insurance is predicted to be a $3 trillion dollar market and Walnut is well positioned to be a leader in this industry.”
“We’re excited to be partnering with the team at Walnut, and to be a part of building a modern insurance infrastructure that can provide more meaningful and relevant insurance journeys to our consumers,” says Andrew Chau, Co-founder and CEO, Neo Financial. “We see this partnership as a means of more deeply engaging with our users, through a modern and convenient version of a process that has historically been time-consuming and laborious.”
“The insurance industry is ready for disruption and Walnut has built a powerful platform that will close the coverage gaps and create meaningful value for millions of people,” says James Povitz, Principal at NAventures. “The partnerships and distribution channels Walnut has been able to acquire at this stage of their business is impressive and speaks to the need that Walnut’s fintech infrastructure is solving for partners and clients.”
In its digital-first approach, Walnut has flipped the insurance model to build an era of insurance that is marked by accessibility and transparency. Driven to create a holistic insurance offering, Walnut delivers embedded life, home and auto insurance journeys and access to leading health and wellness subscriptions. With this new funding round, Walnut will focus on further expanding their strategic partnerships across North America, delivering custom embedded insurance programs that enable brands to build deeper relationships with their customers.
About Walnut
Founded in 2020, Walnut is a Canadian and US insurtech that has built technology infrastructure to power embedded insurance for retailers, financial services, and consumer platforms. Walnut’s platform makes insurance simple and convenient – creating greater accessibility for underserved audiences across life, home, renters, auto, and embedded product lines. To learn more, visit www.gowalnut.com
About NAventures
NAventures, the corporate venture capital arm of National Bank of Canada, takes equity stakes in startups and growing businesses to foster growth in companies that will shape the financial institutions of the future. Follow NAventures activities at nbc.ca/naventures
About ATB Financial
With $59.1 billion in assets, ATB Financial is an Alberta-built financial institution that is a catalyst for economic growth in our province. We got started in 1938 to help Albertans through tough economic times. Today, ATB Financial’s more than 5,000 team members love to deliver exceptional experiences to over 800,000 clients through our many branches and agencies, our 24-hour Client Care Centre, four entrepreneur centres, and our digital banking options. ATB powers possibilities for our clients, Alberta and beyond.
Contacts
Arianna Dametto
arianna@gowalnut.com
Walnut Insurance