Challenger car insurer Marshmallow crowned a UK unicorn following $85m raise

Car insurer Marshmallow has more than quadrupled its valuation in less than a year to now become one of the UK’s most valued fintechs with a $1.25bn price tag.

The increase came as existing investors Passion Capital, Investec, French reinsurer Scor and other undisclosed investors poured $85m into the business for its Series B funding round.

Marshmallow was co-founded by Black entrepreneurs—and identical twins—Oliver and Alexander Kent-Braham, and David Goaté in 2017.

Its direct-to-consumer approach and use of big data have helped the firm sell over 100,000 policies, up 100 per cent in the last six months alone.

“We started with the idea of the power of data and using a wider range of resources [than incumbents], and using that in our pricing led us to be able to offer better rates to more people,” co-CEO Oliver told TechCrunch.

“They are big companies and stuck in their ways. These companies have been around for decades, some for centuries. Change is not happening quickly.”

The plan for the fresh funding is to deepen Marshmallow’s relationship with its users, with new products to increase the lifetime value of its customers, as well as deliver on its plan for international expansion.

Marshmallow last raised funding in November 2020, when its $30m Series A came in at a valuation of $310m, however investors in this earlier round weren’t disclosed.

Recently, challenger insurers have been on the rise, with European life insurer YuLife scooping a $70m Series B in July and Lemonade’s 2020 US IPO that valued the group at $1.6bn.