Baobab, a Berlin, Germany-based cyber insurance company protecting organizations from existing and emerging cyber threats, raised $4.2m in pre-seed financing.
The round was led by Project A Ventures with participation from La Famiglia, Discovery Ventures and several angel investors such Christopher Oster and Marco Adelt (Clark), Michael Riegel (Comtravo), Hanno Fichtner (Gabi), Emilios Markou and Alexis Pantazis (Hellas Direct), Philippe Mota and Jan Beckers (Bit Capital & Ioniq) as well as Martin Kissinger (Lendable).
The new funding will be used to hire insurance professionals as well as technical and cyber security experts.
Founded in 2020 by Vincenz Klemm (former co-founder of insurtech Gabi which was sold for $320 million to Experian) and Anton Foth (formerly at BCG Digital Ventures and CTO at Coya AG), Baobab insures companies against damages caused by cyberattacks such as business interruptions, liabilities and service costs. On top of that, it reduces risks by assessing potential threats, providing attack surface management as well as continuous monitoring and vulnerability checks to protect customers from further exposure to hacks. The system optimizes risk selection, pricing, and mitigation using machine learning models that optimize for better loss ratios.
The company is already joined by Manuela Solescu (ex-Revolut, ex-WeFox) as Head of Product, Andrew Saula (ex-Head of Pen Testing at TUI) as Head of Cyber Security for Baobab’s portfolio companies, and Arian Mohajer Soltani as Head of Cyber Underwriting (ex-AIG, ex-Marsh).
Baobab will distribute insurances by partnering up with brokers who can then sell insurance to their clients. The company is developing the product in close collaboration with brokers to also support them in explaining cyber threats to their customers.
The company will be launching in Germany in early 2022 followed by other European markets.
FinSMEs
18/01/2022