Hippo raises $350 mn capital investment from Japan’s Mitsui Sumitomo

By Pavithra R

Hippo Enterprises, the high-growth InsurTech group transforming home insurance, has announced a capital investment of $350 mn from Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Company, a subsidiary of MS&AD Insurance Group Holdings. 

The investment solidifies the strategic collaboration between the two companies, which started with MS&AD Ventures’ initial funding in Hippo’s Series E funding round. Hippo has also announced the joining of Takashi Sato, a managing partner of MS&AD Ventures, the corporate venture capital fund of MS&AD Insurance Group Holdings to its board of directors as an observer. The firm is planning to use the finance to support its product roll out in additional states, to reach 95% of the United States’ homeowners population in the coming year, as well as providing additional capital for its insurance and reinsurance companies. 

“Mitsui Sumitomo is one of the best when it comes to risk management and shares our desire to leverage data and analytics to create better outcomes for homeowners. We’re excited to deepen our partnership and gain additional catastrophe modeling expertise from one of the world’s largest insurers,” said Assaf Wand, CEO and Co-founder of Hippo.

Both Hippo and Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Company are planning to sign a reinsurance treaty. Mitsui Sumitomo will take on a portion of risk to support Hippo’s Insurance Company, a national property and casualty insurer licensed in 50 states and rated A by A.M. Best Company.

“We value the innovation that Hippo brought to the home insurance space through its advanced classification of risk. We look forward to learning from one another through our strategic partnership, providing high value-added products and services to customers of both companies in the U.S. and Japan, and to continue to support Hippo, which quickly became a top insurtech in the U.S. home insurance space and is beloved by its customers,” said Shinichiro Funabiki, Director, Vice President Executive Officer at Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Company, Limited.

Founded in 2015, Hippo Insurance Services is on a mission to transform home insurance for the modern household. The company is reimagining the traditional homeowner’s insurance policy by using trusted data sources, smart home device kits. The firm began selling its policies to homeowners in 2017 and is now available to more than 70% of the U.S. homeowners population across 29 states.