February has been quite active. Six deals have been announced in recent weeks. While not staggering, this puts us in line with the monthly average observed last year. It's slightly higher than January. And, if you remember, if you regularly follow this podcast, the first months of the year are often more of a tail end of the previous year than a true indicator of the year starting.
In short, six deals have been announced, totaling €32 million invested. Which is rather low, as you will agree.
This month, CarbonPool announced the largest funding round with €11.2 million. This Swiss startup focuses on carbon credit insurance. In my opinion, the question arises as to whether it is an insurtech or a pure financial product. However, since one of the founders comes from the ranks of Allianz, and the term "insurance" appears in black and white on the front page of the website, I count this round in the InsurTech category.
The second significant deal this month concerns Artificial Labs. This UK-based startup focuses on the underwriting part of the value chain. As you know, this area has been among the quietest in terms of investments in recent years. However, you may recall another deal announced in this area in January with Hyperexponential. Returning to Artificial Labs, it's worth noting that the funding round is smaller than the one announced eighteen months ago: a little over €9 million raised this month compared to €11 million at the time. It's not a huge difference, especially in the current context. However, I felt it was important to highlight because it inevitably says something about the startup's dynamics and the state of the market itself!
Let's also note the second round of funding for the startup Kynd, based in England and positioned in the highly active cyber insurance sector. Like its counterparts across Europe, it offers a blend of cyber prevention, tools to facilitate distribution through brokers, and a cyber insurance policy. It raises €5.6 million to continue its development. That's more than the €4 million raised two years ago!
Finally, a brief note on a deal we completed with astoryaVC in the German startup Embea. It operates in the life insurance lines, which, as you know, are less active in European InsurTech than P&C or even commercial lines. Furthermore, it is launching with an embedded model. And again, while embedded insurance has been making headlines for several months, there have not yet been initiatives specifically in life insurance. Finally, it's worth noting that one of the founders had already launched a startup in this area, but with direct distribution. After selling it a few years ago, he is now relaunching in these lines of business with an indirect approach. This obviously seemed to correspond to our own investment thesis regarding innovation in insurance distribution.
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