Estonian insurance technology startup Cachet, that offers insurance services to gig economy workers, has raised €5.5 million that the company plans to use to expand its services across Europe.
The Tallinn-based insuretech startup provides solutions for the platform economy workforce, which will account for one out of five economically active citizens in the European Union by 2025, according to a statement from the company.
“Traditional insurers struggle to deal with platform work’s unique needs, such as ride-hailing drivers that work across different platforms like Bolt and Uber. This makes worker protection cumbersome and costly,” it said.
“Cachet solves the issue of a platform worker’s employment-related data being spread across multiple platforms by aggregating the data across platforms. By building a better picture of worker employment patterns, Cachet enables insurers to create fair and flexible insurance policies and cut the costs for workers.”
Growing its team and improving its technology
Cachet already provides motor insurance for ride-hailing drivers as well as regular consumers, and delivery driver insurance that covers personal injury and property damage, accidents and medical expenses. “The company’s new insurance plans will include third-party liability as well as personal health and accident coverage for gig workers,” the startup said.
Leading the €5.5 million financing round was Paris-based Truffle Capital, making this its first investment in the region. The round also included Uniqa Ventures, an expert in the Central Europe region, and previous investor Icebreaker.vc. Truffle Capital and Icebreaker.vc representatives will join Cachet’s supervisory board.
The funds will be used to grow the company’s team, improve its technology and data models and expand within Europe, the company said.
Cachet has an insurance distribution license that has been passported to most of the EU countries and currently operates in Estonia, Latvia and Poland, while also serving customers in the UK, Lithuania and Finland. In addition to Bolt and Uber, it also works with platforms like Upsteam, Citybee and Cleanify.
