Urban Jungle, a London-based insurtech startup that seeks to revamp insurance for young people, announced on Wednesday it raised £1 million during its Seed funding round, which was led by former CEO of Prudential UK and HBOS insurance, Rob Devey with participation from angel investors and early investors such as Funding Circle, Octopus, and BoughtByMany. Founded in 2016 by Jimmy Williams and Greg Smyth, Urban Jungle describes itself as an insurtech business that helps young people get access to cheaper, better home insurance.
“Everything we do is designed with young urban renters in mind. We’re building an insurance provider where you can easily get cover, at a great price, with cover which is designed for your lifestyle. “
The company is also backed by David Newton, Andy Crossley, Nic Farhi, Mark Jannaway, Jonathan Quit, Simon Rogerson, Chris Mays, Alan Morgan, Mandeep Singh, and James Meekings. Speaking about the investment, Williams stated:
“This investment marks a big step towards our mission to build an insurance provider that customers love. Through 2017, we focused on building a business that our customers can rely on 100% when something goes wrong. In 2018 we’ll vastly increase the choice of products for our customers, and make all of our products even easier to use. We’re delighted to have brought on board such a high quality group of investors who can help us accelerate towards these goals.”
Devey, who also acts as the business’ Board Advisor, went on to add:
“I’m delighted to be backing Urban Jungle again. I’m very excited about the huge opportunity to transform the insurance industry using technology, and think this team is superbly well placed to capitalise on that. They have proven their ability to execute to a very highly quality over the past year, and I’m confident that they will only accelerate from here.”