YuLife raises $120M in Series C funding round

YuLife, the tech-driven insurance company on a mission to inspire people to live their best lives, today announced that it has raised $120M (~£95M) in a Series C led by Dai-ichi Life Insurance Company, Limited (TSE: 8750) (“Dai-ichi Life”), a new strategic investor in the company. The funding round, which was supported by YuLife’s existing investors, takes YuLife’s total funding to $206M since the company was founded in 2016, having raised capital from top tier investors including Creandum, LocalGlobe, Target Global, Latitude, Anthemis, OurCrowd, Notion, MMC and Eurazeo. YuLife will use the capital to broaden its reach into new global markets and scale its product range, delivering financial products that improve lives and reward wellbeing. This furthers the company’s ambition of transforming financial services into a force for good.

YuLife believes that the $6 trillion insurance industry is not fit for the future due to low trust, low perceived value and low engagement.

The global wellbeing crisis, exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic, has meant that there is a huge gap to fill in the market. YuLife’s flagship product, group life insurance, has achieved rapid traction in a market lacking in innovation.

YuLife has fundamentally changed the nature of life insurance, creating an innovative new ‘win-win’ model which benefits individuals, businesses and society. The highly engaging, game-like YuLife app enables YuLife policyholders to complete everyday wellness activities in order to earn YuCoin, which they can use to buy gifts for themselves, friends or family, or to improve the world through planting trees and donating to charity. Over a third of YuLife customers engage with the company every single day, compared to once a year for the average insurer, and 87% report an improvement to their wellbeing as a result of having YuLife as their insurer.

“Insurance has the potential to achieve tremendous social good”, said Sammy Rubin, CEO and Founder, YuLife. “Unusually for financial services, our product creates a deep alignment of interests between the insurer, the company and the individual. We believe that wellbeing must be holistic, and we are committed to building a global financial services brand that can change the lives of millions of people across the world.”

“Companies that choose YuLife are making a statement that they care deeply about their employees”, continued Rubin. “Now more than ever it is important for companies to go above and beyond to build a culture of care in the workplace, as traditional benefits packages just do not do the job. Our proposition addresses a vital business need exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic and the ‘Great Resignation’.”

“Dai-ichi Life is committed to supporting companies that have a proven track record of changing people’s lives for the better, and YuLife does exactly that, by bringing tangible value to financial products to bolster individuals’ wellbeing,” said Toshiaki Sumino, Director, Managing Executive Officer, Dai-ichi Life Holdings, Inc. “YuLife has immense potential to build on its achievements to date, and we are thrilled to invest and help propel YuLife towards its next steps and scale its global operations. YuLife shares our ethos of harnessing the latest trends in technology to make a genuine difference to the lives of those using financial products.”

In July 2021, YuLife raised a $70M Series B in one of Europe’s largest insurtech funding rounds and has seen more than 5x growth in Gross Written Premiums year-on-year. YuLife now covers >500k policyholders across small to large businesses, with over $50bn (~£40bn) of cover in place.

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Featured image by YuLife