Eleos Raises $4 Million Seed Funding To Transform Digital Life Insurance
May 8, 2024
Eleos, a London-based insurtech startup, has successfully secured $4 million in a seed funding round led by Fuel Ventures and Indico Capital, with additional support from APX. This funding round comes just six months after Eleos completed its pre-seed round, demonstrating the company’s rapid growth and strong market positioning.
Founded in 2022, Eleos is the UK’s sole provider of fully digital life insurance and income protection products. The company has quickly made strides in the insurtech space, leveraging innovative solutions to address key shortcomings in the traditional insurance industry. Eleos aims to simplify the integration of life and income protection insurance for consumers by offering a fully digital experience.
Eleos's mission revolves around addressing two major gaps in the insurance sector: the lack of effective communication about the importance of financial protections like life and income protection insurance, and the difficulty in developing seamless, fully digital insurance solutions. By collaborating with leading financial brands, Eleos is revolutionizing consumer access to essential financial protections.
Eleos's proprietary full stack B2B2C solution includes APIs and white-labelled journeys, enabling seamless integration for its partners without additional costs. This integration strategy not only introduces new revenue streams but also enhances customer retention and provides full regulatory coverage under Eleos's FCA authorization. Eleos’s partners include notable companies like Loqbox, CreditLadder, CreditSpring, and Updraft.
To attract and retain customers, Eleos offers several complimentary benefits with its insurance policies. These include a 24/7 remote GP service, mental health support, and a cashback scheme for everyday purchases. These value-added services help offset the cost of insurance premiums and make Eleos’s offerings more appealing to consumers.
Currently, the penetration rate of life insurance in the UK stands at 35%, with income protection at just 6%. Although adoption rates for these critical protections have been gradually increasing, Eleos aims to accelerate this trend by raising awareness and improving accessibility. This forms the first part of Eleos's mission.
In terms of digital solutions, traditional insurers often start the customer journey online but rely heavily on lengthy phone calls and a drawn-out underwriting process, resulting in a cumbersome and fragmented experience. Eleos addresses this by enabling consumers to purchase financial products entirely online, through platforms they already trust. This modernization forms the second part of Eleos's mission.
Eleos's CEO, Kiruba Shankar Eswaran, who has a successful track record with startups such as Zaask, emphasized the significance of the new funding. “With our new funding, we will launch more lines of insurance in the life and disability verticals and strike more distribution partnerships in the UK. Part of the funding is also earmarked to launch operations in the US.”
Mark Pearson, founder of Fuel Ventures, highlighted the strategic alignment with Eleos, stating, “We’ve been looking for a way into the insurtech sector for a long time but to do that we need a team with specialist experience, an understanding of the challenges, and access to a substantial market. With Eleos, we’ve found all three and we believe their products encapsulate our thinking about the insurance space – giving people easy access on familiar platforms. We’re working together to make our shared vision of the future a reality and that’s why we’ve doubled down on our support for their growth and expansion.”
Stephan Morais, Managing General Partner of Indico Capital Partners, added, “Indico is happy to keep supporting experienced founders such as the founders of Eleos. The insurtech market has plenty of room to grow and Eleos is targeting areas which are not only sizeable but overlooked by other current players globally.”
Operating in both B2B and B2C sectors, Eleos is creating substantial new revenue opportunities for its partners by addressing the gap in personal financial security, which leaves millions vulnerable to life’s challenges. This seed round builds significantly on previous investments from Fuel Ventures, Founders Factory, APX, Insurtech NY, Magic Fund, and Indico Capital Partners, further solidifying Eleos's growth trajectory and expansion plans.