Growth and Scale
We hope your 2022 is off to a great start. It’s hard to believe we are almost through the first quarter of the year. Just like last year, we are seeing things start off in hyper speed.
Last year proved to be a fast-growth year for InsurTech, Mobility, and Adjacent markets. InsurTech deals and funding nearly doubled, and funding reached an all-time high of $15.4B in 2021. At the same time, Mobility tech startups raised $23.4 billion in venture funding during Q4 2021 alone, an 81.9% YoY increase. Early signs show that growth continues to accelerate across these focus areas in 2022.
Embracing this growth trend, Avanta Studios welcomed three new companies to our program. Frigdio is a SaaS marketplace connecting shippers to refrigerated logistics on-demand. Otonomi is a blockchain-enabled parametric MGA platform that transforms cargo insurance policies into fast, cost-effective, and transparent digital products. And our third new company is Yada Data Studios which creates immersive data driven applications, including Yoyada for financial management.
This year also started with the Avanta Ventures team celebrating David Li and Pooja Shah being named two of this year’s Global Corporate Venturing Top 50 Rising Stars! Global Corporate Venturing, the leading media publication and data provider serving the corporate venture capital industry, selected this year’s winners from almost 20,000 industry professionals nominated by the heads of units and their peers. We are incredibly proud of David and Pooja’s achievements.
As we continue to grow and scale our business in response to market investment trends, we are ready to welcome new members to our team. We are hiring a number of positions: Head of Avanta Studios, Business Development and Partnerships, Senior Associate, and Venture Associate Intern.
We are excited about what 2022 holds for our team, and our portfolio and Studios partners.
Avanta Ventures’ Perspectives
WHY IS THE ABILITY TO FULLY LEVERAGE HOME TELEMATICS DATA STILL LACKING?
Despite over two-thirds of U.S. households owning at least one smart home device and the multiple benefits of telematics programs, insurer interest and programs leveraging IoT devices have been falling in the last few years. So, what are the barriers that are slowing down adoption?
COMMERCIAL INDEPENDENT INSURANCE AGENTS ARE HERE TO STAY
A burgeoning ecosystem of new technologies and innovations has formed to enable independent insurance agents to work more effectively. Two up-and-coming technologies empowering IAs are commercial lines comparative raters and servicing automation.
COVID-19, SUPPLY CHAIN VISIBILITY, AND NEW OPPORTUNITIES FOR INSURANCE
The pandemic served to expose significant supply chain gaps, in addition to shining a bright light on the need for actionable real-time visibility into shipments. Over the past two years, companies building such visibility platforms have gained significant traction, unlocking new opportunities for industries like insurance.
INSURANCE FOR THE SHARING ECONOMY
Telematics has played a significant role in personal and commercial markets for years, leading to the transition to usage-based insurance, or UBI, a “pay-as-you-drive” model, essential to the sharing economy. The Hive Think Tank recently hosted a virtual webinar exploring how logistics companies can adapt these new models in the gig economy to their own business.
Sponsored and Attending Events
- BASES Startup Challenge: April 14
- BASES Women in Entrepreneurship Summit: April 18
- InsurTech SF | Investing in Insurtech: May 12
- Global Corporate Venturing & Innovation Summit: June 22-23
Portfolio Company News
About Avanta Ventures
Avanta Ventures is the venture capital arm of CSAA Insurance Group. We provide deep insurance expertise, partnership, and financial investment to leading startups in Insurtech, Mobility, and Insurtech-Adjacent markets. Avanta Ventures typically invests in Seed and Series A 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 Insurtech-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.
