YuLife initially made a reputation for itself in its residence market of the U.Okay. for its new method to the provisioning of life insurance coverage: sure, promote a coverage that gives monetary safety to your folks within the occasion of your loss of life; however achieve this with a give attention to enhancing the policyholder’s present life with wellness alternatives, and encourage use of that with gamification — a mannequin that not solely is aimed toward benefitting the policyholders extra, however will increase engagement on the platform and gives a complementary income for YuLife, which provides offers on the wellness providers.
Its thought took off — it’s now utilized by greater than 500 companies, together with Co-op, Del Monte, Jaguar Land Rover, Santander and CapitalOne, which in flip present plans to their staff, certainly one of three of whom interact on the app each day. On the heels of that, now the corporate is asserting that it has raised $120 million to broaden the idea. At present, YuLife covers group life insurance coverage, essential sickness safety and earnings safety, however it’s now quickly increasing to new classes like dental and well being, in addition to monetary providers (pensions being one instance of a class that has a powerful affinity with life insurance coverage), in addition to to new markets just like the U.S.
The funding, a Sequence C, is bringing a brand new strategic investor on board, Japan’s Dai-ichi Life Insurance coverage Firm, which is main the spherical, together with participation from earlier buyers Creandum, LocalGlobe, Goal World, Latitude, Anthemis, OurCrowd, Notion, MMC and Eurazeo.
CEO and co-founder Sammy Rubin tells us that this newest fundraise values the corporate at $800 million. For some context on that determine, when YuLife extra not too long ago raised cash earlier than this — a Sequence B of $70 million in 2021 — it was valued at $346 million.
That may be a first rate bounce contemplating the present local weather. Many tech firms are discovering it laborious to boost rounds, and when they’re doing so valuations are positively getting buttoned down (and in quite a few instances seeing down-rounds). And insuretech particularly is unquestionably not being spared: on the heels of a increase throughout the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic, insurance coverage know-how funding in Q1 2022 was 50% decrease than a yr in the past, and Q2 is shaping as much as be even slower, in accordance with analysis from Dealroom.
A part of the rationale for YuLife’s bump is that the corporate itself has continued to develop by way of the slowdown.
Rubin tells me that its prospects — it sells solely on to organizations in a B2B mannequin, who in flip present life insurance coverage their staff as a part of bigger advantages applications — have grown 4X within the final yr (not as many because the yr earlier than, which was 10X, however nonetheless rising), with revenues up five-fold, and protection now totaling $50 billion, versus $15 billion a yr in the past. Near 50% of its prospects are new to the platform, he mentioned, and in doing so is increasing the scope of these which can be contemplating it as a worthwhile profit for his or her staff.
“These are firms that had by no means had life insurance coverage earlier than,” Rubin mentioned, noting that they’re attracted not simply “by the entire life insurance coverage profit, however the holistic platform round it.”
That holistic platform is an fascinating twist on the fundamental idea of what life insurance coverage will be about.
The app is constructed by veterans of the gaming trade and is designed across the idea of various pure environments reminiscent of forest and mountains, which YuLife collectively phrases its “Yuniverse.”
Inside every of those environments, customers are inspired to stroll, cycle, meditate and do different actions to get round their environments in a wholesome approach, whereas on the identical time having the ability to examine their progress in opposition to different co-workers. As with a number of gaming today, is a level of personalization in everybody’s expertise: one particular person leaning into one exercise over one other appears to supply totally different subsequent eventualities.
Together with this, customers are supplied reductions on third-party merchandise to additional interact with the sport inside YuLife, which may embrace a subscription to meditation app Calm, FitBit and Garmin units, and extra. As customers make their approach by way of their worlds, they get rewards, within the type of one thing referred to as YuCoins. The YuCoins can in flip be used to redeem vouchers from the likes of Amazon and Asos.
Group life insurance coverage, Rubin mentioned, is the corporate’s flagship product and accounts for over 80% of revenues. Its different merchandise — at present essential sickness, earnings safety and dental — account for the opposite 20%. Its revenues, he added, are attributed to the sale of insurance coverage insurance policies. “Our insurance coverage insurance policies are holistic and embrace the wellness component,” he mentioned.
Wellness in itself is a large alternative — price some $1.5 trillion in 2021 in accordance with McKinsey estimates — and when you can see a powerful affinity between how that could be oriented round a life insurance coverage product, and certainly a medical health insurance product, it will likely be fascinating to see how YuLife tailors the idea to other forms of insurance coverage, and to different merchandise reminiscent of monetary providers. Rubin famous that proper now one of many perks within the dental product is a free electrical toothbrush for every new consumer (though customers nonetheless should pay to interchange the heads).
By way of the opposite approach that YuLife may develop, Rubin added that it has “no plans” to turn into a D2C product, however to proceed promoting by way of firms. This continues to set it aside from the broader wave of insurtechs, which have largely disrupted the incumbent market by enhancing accessibility to getting insurance coverage within the first place.
AIG, Met Life and Zurich are YuLife’s present underwriters within the U.Okay. and Rubin mentioned the corporate is at present negotiating with underwriters and different companions for its U.S. launch. Dai-chi Life does have operations within the U.S. market — amongst different actions it owns Protecting Life — however Rubin mentioned the strategic component of this funding isn’t aimed toward that, however fairly a longer-term plan additionally to broaden into Japan.
“Dai-ichi Life is dedicated to supporting firms which have a confirmed observe file of fixing folks’s lives for the higher, and YuLife does precisely that, by bringing tangible worth to monetary merchandise to bolster people’ wellbeing,” mentioned Toshiaki Sumino, director and managing govt officer at Dai-ichi Life Holdings, Inc., in a press release. “YuLife has immense potential to construct on its achievements up to now, and we’re thrilled to take a position and assist propel YuLife in direction of its subsequent steps and scale its world operations. YuLife shares our ethos of harnessing the newest developments in know-how to make a real distinction to the lives of these utilizing monetary merchandise.”