Augmentum invests €3m into German insurtech Baobab

The publicly listed fintech fund shared updates on its portfolio alongside news of its latest investment.

Augmentum Fintech has released an update on its portfolio fund, including the news that it led insurtech Baobab’s latest funding round.

The publicly listed fintech fund invested €3m into Berlin-based cyber insurance platform Baobab in its first venture into the insurtech space.

In an article outlining why the company decided to invest in the SME cyber insurance provider, it said it previously held a “more circumspect thesis” on insurtech. 

It has since developed a deep conviction in the space and a strong relationship with Baobab’s founding team, according to Augmentum.

“We have a strong conviction that new risks are driving opportunities in insurtech and cyber represents a fast-growing and underpenetrated market,” Augmentum CEO Tim Levene said.

“The team demonstrates strong execution capabilities in developing a solid product, building out a rapidly expanding network of broker partners across Germany and have secured backing from a leading tier one capacity provider in Zurich.”

In addition to Baobab, Augmentum has 24 private fintechs in its portfolio including Tide, Zopa, Grover, Gemini, Monese and Anyfin.

With investments across verticals, stages and geographies, Augmentum said that despite current public markets volatility, the Portfolio Manager believes the portfolio continues to provide “significant growth potential”.

It also said that the top five portfolio companies had seen an average year over year revenue growth rate of 102 per cent.

As part of its update, it shared that SME banking provider Tide (11.9 per cent of its portfolio) acquired Funding Options in November 2022, creating one of the biggest digital marketplaces for SME credit in the UK.

In December it launched an app and a business account in India, with plans to onboard 500,000 SMEs in the country over 24 months.

Elsewhere in its portfolio, digital bank Zopa (11.1 per cent) became profitable last April, just 21 months after securing its banking licence, and has now exceeded £3bn in deposits.