Insurtech Cytora secures £25m Series B for AI-powered commercial underwriting solution

UK-based insurtech Cytora, a provider of AI-powered solutions for the commercial insurance industry, has raised £25 million funding to expand its product suite and scale into new geographies.

The Series B funding round was led by the EQT Ventures fund. Other participants included existing investors Cambridge Innovation Capital, Parkwalk, and a number of angel investors.

Cytora was founded and spun out of the University of Cambridge in 2014 by a team of machine learning scientists, data engineers and strategists.

Cytora's software is currently being used by insurers, including QBE, AXA XL, MS Amlin, and Starr, to inject efficiency and accuracy into their underwriting process.

"With this investment, we're looking forward to widening our impact and helping accelerate the insurance industry’s digital transformation,” said Richard Hartley, co-founder and CEO at Cytora. "Today, we’re enabling insurers to underwrite at a fraction of the cost of traditional methods and price policies more accurately.

"Over the next 24 months, we’re going to scale across the insurance value chain and move into new geographies. The EQT Ventures team brings unrivalled expertise and they’ve supported the growth of some of Europe’s leading businesses. We’re looking forward to partnering with them on the exciting journey ahead.”

Lyle Fong, partner and investment advisor at EQT Ventures, said: “We’re seeing a radical transformation in insurance, with organisations now expecting the same level of simplicity, transparency and convenience from their business insurers as they’re getting from consumer insurers and digital banks. Changing core underwriting processes that have been set for decades is hard, but of all the founders I’ve met, Richard and Aeneas have the ambition, grit, and drive to do it.”