Already profitable, Koala raises €2m
to accelerate its growth
Paris, March 28th 2023 – Koala, the travel insurtech, announces the successful completion of a €2 million fundraising round led by its existing investor Insurtech Gateway and welcomes 3 new investors: Uneti Ventures, Slimmer AI and Sterling Oak.
This round will fuel Koala’s growth in Europe, enabling it to continue growing its tech and sales teams, and building brand-new travel protections.
Innovating in travel insurance? Koala takes on the challenge
The travel insurance market is challenging to break into: products that traditionally require a lot of human operations, no subscription model, and distribution channels that have been locked up by the same insurers for years.
Add to this, Covid-19 that changed the expectations of travellers and distributors, who are now more than ever looking for simple, flexible solutions that allow them to book their travel with peace of mind. That’s where Koala comes in.
Founded in 2018 by Antony Mechin, Léo Tordjman and Ugo Weyl, Koala builds modular travel protections from scratch, always with the same philosophy: remove exclusions, automate 100% of the operations and offer protections requiring no proof. To date, the startup has developed 2 unique products: a Cancellation for Any Reason (Koala Flex) and a Trip Disruption for Delays, Cancellations and Missed Connections (Koala Trip Disruption).
With Koala, travel agencies and operators can tailor their travel protection and offer their customers unparalleled protection coupled with an optimal customer experience that requires no proof or reasons.
“Covid-19 was a real eye-opener for the travel market but also for travel protections which showed many of their limitations with messy exclusions and very long reimbursement processes. Post-Covid, travel agencies and operators are more than ever looking for solutions to allow their users to travel with peace of mind. But traditional insurers have done very little to innovate since then, and that’s where Koala comes into its own. All of our products are unique, automated and customizable to enable an unprecedented customer experience. And thanks to our data-driven approach, we enable our partners to generate much more revenue than with their current offers.”
Léo Tordjman
Co-founder of Koala
Koala wants to become a European reference in travel protection
After years of development, Koala launched its full-scale commercialisation in early 2022 with over 30+ partnerships signed including some market references like Direct Ferries, Pelikan and Vola.
This B2B2C strategy bore fruit with more than 100,000 travellers protected by Koala in 2022. The startup, which has been profitable for several months, has big ambitions and is aiming to protect 500,000 travellers in 2023. The year has got off to a great start, by March Koala had already exceeded its 2022 figures.
The key to Koala’s success: making its product so modular that it can continually optimise its selling price and protection details through data analysis, thereby increasing its partners’ revenue. Thanks to this data strategy, Koala is able to achieve conversion rates up to 2.5 times higher than the market average.
“Unlike any other travel insurer, at Koala we continually A/B test our prices, protection details, visuals and even content. A traveller leaving last minute in the South of France and another one preparing their trip in 5 months for the United States does not have the same expectations or sensibility to protect themself, that’s why our technical solution automatically adapts our product to the travellers. We are convinced that hyper-specification is a golden opportunity in the travel protection market”.
Marion Doucet
CPO of Koala
“Koala grew significantly in 2022. With their unique customer experience, they continually gain traction among travel providers in Europe. We have high hopes for Koala, we are excited to be a part of their journey and to support their vision for the future.”
Richard Chattock
CEO at Insurtech Gateway
The €2 million fundraising round will enable Koala to invest in data and machine learning to continue optimizing Koala pricing and protection details, in particular with the contribution of Slimmer AI, an AI-specialized venture studio. It will also allow the startup to create brand-new protections, continue growing its commercial team and fuel Koala’s growth.
About Koala
Founded in 2018 by Antony Mechin, Léo Tordjman and Ugo Weyl, Koala is a travel insurtech on a mission to offer peace of mind from the moment travellers book their trips to the minute they return home.
Forget everything you know about travel insurance. At Koala, we’ve swapped out slow processes and the need for receipts for proactiveness, no exclusion and transparency.
All of our products are built from scratch with the same philosophy: automating 100% of the operations while removing all the frictions of an insurance product.
We believe that travellers pay for protection, not to justify their usage. That’s why we make sure that 100% of our users eligible for compensation receive their due at lightning speed.
About Insurtech Gateway
The Insurtech Gateway is the only investor with its own FCA-authorised incubator + fund, the Insurtech Gateway is the fastest place to build and launch an insurtech idea.
The insurance industry has so many barriers to entry, founders often run out of energy and money just trying to get in. The Gateway is a one-stop-shop for founders, where they can get underwriting paper, investment capital and advice on how to design and build their startup, all surrounded by great insurance partners. The Gateway fund supports the portfolio post-incubation, to Series A and beyond.
About Uneti Ventures
UNETI consists of a close-knit group of entrepreneurial investors, who invest collaboratively across transformative verticals. We’re always on the hunt for strong teams with breakthrough ideas and a clear path to break-even.
About Slimmer AI
Slimmer AI is a European venture studio which builds B2B SaaS startups with inspiring founders. For more than 10 years, Slimmer AI has built innovative AI products and ventures to solve real-world problems and transform the way people work. For more information go to Slimmer AI.
