Investing in Covr, a Digital Insurance Broker

Digital innovation continues to drive the insurtech sector, which attracted record funding of $7.1B in 2020 and is projected to grow by nearly 50% annually for years to come. Covr Financial Technologies (Covr) exemplifies the fast-moving insurtech market, where new entrants and incumbents are using AI, ML, automated workflows, and data analytics to assess risk, underwrite customers, expand digital distribution, and improve customer experience.

In keeping with our insurtech thesis, Citi Ventures has completed an investment in Covr, our first in an insurtech provider. Covr is transforming the insurance-buying experience with its technology platform that connects insurance carriers and financial institutions so the financial firms can provide insurance products to their customers directly or through their financial advisors. This unique “insurance-as-a-service” value proposition has enabled Covr to build an ecosystem of more than 30 insurance carriers and more than 30,000 financial advisors since its launch in 2016.

Covr’s four main product lines are:

• Covr Advisor, a life insurance sales and service platform for financial advisors.
• Covr Consumer, a turnkey platform for financial institutions.
• Covr Exchange/Transact, an end-to-end direct-to-consumer platform for carriers.
• Covr Managed Services, which enables financial institutions and carriers to outsource their business development processes to Covr.

The insurance brokerage market is expected to grow from $265B in 2019 to $395B in 2027, and Covr is well-positioned to capture increasing market share due to its business-to-business-to-consumer (B2B2C) model and ecosystem of financial institutions, which is poised to continue expanding and driving growth. The pandemic also has played a hand in Covr’s growth trajectory by making financial security (including insurance) top of mind for consumers and normalizing and accelerating digitization. The aging population is also boosting demand for retirement-benefit products, including life, health, and other forms of insurance.

We look forward to supporting Covr as it continues to grow in the innovative and promising insurtech sector.

For more information, contact Luis Valdich at luis.valdich@citi.com or Thompson Barro at thompson.barro@citi.com.