UK start-up Nayms nabs $6m to launch digital token for insurance market

London-based cryptocurrency insurtech Nayms has secured additional $6 million funding on the heels of its  $2.1 million seed round in January this year to help finance its proprietary digital token.

The investment came from a number of existing investors, including XBTO, Maven11 and Coinbase Ventures, as well as new ones like Spartan Ventures, DFG, LD Capital, Cadenza, Woodstock, and Kin Insurance CEO, Sean Harper. In total, more than 20 funds and angel investors are partaking in the NAYM token round.

Nayms uses smart insurance contracts to collateralise cryptocurrency risk with matching crypto-assets. It is designed to provide a bridge between capital and risk, in which capital matches risk or assets match liabilities, so there are no pricing errors.

The NAYM token is designed to enable participants on the Nayms Insurance Market to share in the growing value of the network. It will capture fees from contract placements, trading activity and growing collateral on the protocol and will align incentives across capital providers, underwriters, brokers and insureds, promoting healthy insurance placement and risk trading, Nayms said.

Nayms has been building its team in recent months, having hired David Verbeeten, the insurance lead at Consensys, as chief commercial officer, and Tyler Skelton, previously chief financial officer of crypto venture Bakkt Trust Company, as head of finance. The start-up now has a team of 12 people, and plans to make two more insurance hires in the coming months.

The insurtech will also be announcing a launch programme with brokers and underwriters across the insurance market later in 2021. That will include an allocation of the initial supply of NAYM, which is expected in early 2022.

Dan Roberts, chief executive officer at Nayms, said the oversubscribed round had allowed the insurtech to be highly selective with who it brought into the project. “The additional expertise across capital markets, legal and compliance, token economics and community building will continue to help us support the growing insurance movement within the digital asset space,” he said.

Verbeeten said: “I appreciate the potential of blockchain for coordinating stakeholders over shared infrastructure, including marketplaces. It makes financial and technical sense to insure digital assets with digital assets.”

Tommy Quite of Flow Ventures, which participated in the funding, added: “Insurance is a severely underrepresented vertical within the crypto industry and, as one of the biggest markets, will be fundamental to the future of decentralised finance.”

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