As October kicks off, we are three-quarters through an eventful year filled with market shifts and opportunities across insurtech, mobility, and risk-adjacent sectors.
The Avanta Ventures team recently announced a $225M Fund II, bringing our assets under management to over $300M. We plan to invest $1M-$10M in early-stage companies at the Seed, Series A and Series B stages, with the ability to lead deals while reserving significant capital for follow-on investment to continue to support our portfolio. Our primary investment sectors are insurtech, mobility, and risk-adjacent sectors such as fintech, cybersecurity, smart home and applied artificial intelligence.
Fund II was announced during ITC Vegas 2022, the world’s largest gathering of insurance leaders and innovators. Avanta Ventures and Keefe, Bruyette, and Woods (KBW) cohosted an event and met with leading insurtech founders and investors. We left Las Vegas feeling inspired about the future of insurance and beyond.
In other great news this quarter, two of our portfolio companies—Cowbell and Kin Insurance—were named to Forbes Next Billion-Dollar Startups 2022. We are thrilled that they were recognized among an elite group of 25 venture-backed startups most likely to become unicorns.
Finally, we are excited to welcome Deepak Mishra as our newest senior associate to the Avanta Ventures team. In this role, Deepak will research investment focus areas, build investment theses, source deal flow, and conduct due diligence on investment opportunities.
The Avanta Ventures team ended the quarter excited by the growth of our portfolio companies and meeting innovative founders reimagining the future of insurance.
Avanta Ventures’ Perspectives
Blockchain adoption in insurance
As companies weigh the potential business benefits blockchain can yield for subrogation, claims processing, fraud reduction, and other essential insurance functions against the costs and risks of testing this frontier technology, partnering with cutting-edge blockchain startups can provide valuable insight while mitigating risk.
Mobility: how drones create opportunity for insurers
Driven by rapidly maturing underlying technologies and increasing regulatory clarity, the drone industry is at the tipping point of unlocking Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) operations and, with it, a largely untapped market for drone and drone-transported cargo insurance. Within the BVLOS ecosystem, drone management platforms fulfill the most critical role of flight-path risk management and automated approval.
Artificial intelligence: today and tomorrow
As the AI market and technology have matured, AI has permeated across every industry and into all aspects of the value chain. Those few enterprises that have managed to realize a greater return from AI investments and have become “AI-fueled” have kept a flexible approach to AI and have invested in the right tools, resources, a strong data foundation and their employees.
Avanta Studios Spotlight: Motor DNA
We recently spoke with Tom War, Co-Founder of MotorDNA, a cloud-based information platform that processes and delivers automobile build specifications in a unified and normalized format transforming the future of mobility about how his company is transforming the future of mobility.
Sponsored and Attending Events
- Combating Climate Change – The Role of Insurtech: October 12
- Culture Shifting Weekend Miami: October 12 – 15
- Spotlight on Auto Insurance: October 25
Portfolio Company News
About Avanta Ventures
Avanta Ventures is the venture capital arm of CSAA Insurance Group. We aim to reimagine the future of insurance and drive future growth for CSAA IG through our engagement and investment in ground-breaking startups and entrepreneurs. We provide deep insurance expertise, partnership, and financial investment to leading startups in insurtech, mobility and risk-adjacent sectors. Avanta Ventures typically invests in Seed and Series A and Series B companies with early market traction.
Avanta Studios is Avanta Ventures’ startup accelerator that supports startups exploring new markets, business models, and technologies. The Avanta Studios program provides opportunities for startup companies in insurtech, mobility and risk-adjacent markets to access guidance and resources accelerating their progress. Avanta Studios is a rolling admission-based program that provides a customized approach to helping startups reach key milestones and begin to scale. By joining the Avanta Studios community, companies gain valuable insights from well-established mentor relationships we have developed within the Insurance and Mobility ecosystems.
