Collective raises £6m with Silicon Valley NFX, amid growing demands for gig worker benefits
Collection Benefits, a UK insurance tech startup, have raised £6m in a round led by a Silicon Valley venture fund, as the demand for insurance and benefits in the gig economy continues.
The year-old insurance provider also announced the appointment of Pete Flint OBE, the co-founder of Lastminute.com and a general partner at NFX, as a new board member.
Collective is an insurance provider designed specifically for independent, freelance workers in the gig economy which also works directly with on-demand platforms such as TaskRabbit.
Since being founded the company has insured 200,000 people across 20 countries with flexible insurance and benefits specifically for independent workers, from sick and injury pay to family and compassionate leave.
The London-based insurtech said the investment will help fuel its expansion across Europe as it continues to fill the gap between the flexibility of gig work with the lack of protections independent work naturally comes with, with insurance cover.
The business said the injection of cash will allow it to create more products, such as public liability insurance and pensions, to protect independent workers’ physical, mental and financial wellbeing.
Pete Flint OBE, general partner at NFX said: “We like to partner with the startups that will define their category.”
He described the insurtech company’s services as “the missing safety net for independent workers – in a way that creates a win-win outcome for both independent workers themselves, and the platform companies they work with.”
The investment in Collective will be “an opportunity to transform both the insurance and the on-demand economy” with a blend of ground-breaking tech and razor-sharp insurance capabilities,” said Flint.
It comes a year after Collective raised a £3.3m seed round, taking the total raised since it was founded to just under £10m.
Alongside NFX, Collective has enjoyed continued support from investors including Stride VC, Delin Ventures, Insurtech Gateway and executives from Uber, Just Eat and Urban.
Collective chief executive officer Anthony Beilin said “We see NFX’s investment in Collective as a major vote of confidence in our ability to solve the protection gap problem for tens of millions of independent workers across the UK and Europe.”
Beilin, who is also a co-founder of the startup, came up with the idea of an insurance solution for independent workers while he was himself on sick leave with a host of generous benefits from a large corporate insurer.