Hippo, the California-based insurtech company that is transforming home insurance, today announced a $70 million round of growth funding co-led by Felicis Ventures, a venture firm, and Lennar Corporation.
Hippo launched in 2017, providing insurance policies with more comprehensive coverage for today’s homeowners while cutting premium costs up to 25%. Since January 2018, the company grew its policy sales by 30 percent month over month and launched into 11 new states covering more than $25 billion in total property value. All Hippo insurance policies are backed by world-leading re-insurers.
“Hippo has clearly captured the direct to consumer home insurance market with their efficient product, modern coverage and customer friendly approach,” said Eric Feder, a senior Lennar Executive. “This investment marks the beginning of our relationship with Hippo and reflects our enthusiasm for exploring opportunities to streamline and improve the insurance process for our home buyers.” Feder will join the Hippo Board of Directors.
Fifth Wall, a follow-on investor in the round, facilitated and structured the partnership between Hippo and Lennar (a Strategic Limited Partner in Fifth Wall) after co-leading the Series B. Through Fifth Wall, Hippo is able to quickly test and gauge validation from established builders, developers and companies that are transforming our physical world at the intersection of real estate and technology. With this new influx of funding, Hippo will focus on dramatically improving one of the most critical parts of the home buying process, buying the right home insurance, while creating a better customer experience and offering smarter coverage.
“Home buying is the engine of the American economy, but the process for acquiring homeowners insurance - a requirement for most homeowners - has been predominantly analog, arduous and inefficient,” said Brendan Wallace, co-founder and managing partner at Fifth Wall. “This game-changing partnership is a great example of how a real estate incumbent like Lennar can influence innovation cycles in the market - by integrating with a best-in-class startup to move the industry forward.”
Hippo’s series C investment brings the company’s total funding raised to $109 million. The investor base includes many leading angels and funds: Abstract Ventures, Aquiline Technology Growth, Comcast Ventures, Fifth Wall, GGV Capital, Horizons Ventures, Munich Re Ventures, Pipeline Ventures, RPM Ventures and Zeev Ventures.
