JPMorgan and Barclays back $4.5 billion insurance tech giant Wefox

cnbc.com:

German digital insurer Wefox said Wednesday it raised $110 million of fresh funding from backers including JPMorgan and Barclays.

The news marks a vote of confidence for the insurance technology space at a time when it faces tough macroeconomic headwinds.

Wefox is a Berlin, Germany-based firm focused on personal insurance products, such as home insurance, motor insurance and personal liability insurance. Rather than underwriting claims itself, the company connects its users with brokers and partner insurance firms through an online platform.

Founded in 2015, it competes with the likes of U.S. digital insurer Lemonade and German firm GetSafe, as well as established insurance incumbents like Allianz.

Wefox said it raised the fresh funds through a combination of debt financing and fresh equity. Of the $110 million total, $55 million is in the form of a credit facility from banking giants JPMorgan and Barclays. A further of $55 million equity investment was led by Squarepoint Capital, a global investment management firm with $75.7 billion in assets under management.

«It's a new type of financing for a growth company,» Julian Teicke, Wefox's CEO and co-founder, told CNBC in an interview. «Risk investors, equity investors, they understand, they want to take risk.»

«Banks typically don't, so for them it was really important to understand our path towards profitability and the maturity of our business,» he added.

The company said it maintained its $4.5 billion valuation from a July funding round — somewhat rare in today's market, with many fintechs seeing their valuations slump drastically.

Wefox's announcement comes as fintech and the technology industry as a whole grapple with a harsher economic environment, finding it more