New insurance tech firm Next lands $13m investment

Next Insurance, a new insurance technology company, which plans to launch the go-to solution for how small businesses find and obtain insurance online, has announced a $13 million seed investment led by investors Zeev Ventures, TLV Partners and Ribbit Capital.

Next Insurance, which will be available on mobile and desktop, plans to build its team and launch its first product in the spring. It was founded by technology entrepreneur Guy Goldstein, Nissim Tapiro, and Alon Huri. All three were on the former executive team at mobile payments company Check, which was acquired by Intuit in 2014 for nearly $400 million under their leadership.

Next said that obtaining insurance, a process that should be easy and relatively straightforward, is still archaic and complicated for these businesses, which primarily work with insurance agents at brick-and-mortar establishments.

It added that small businesses today can incorporate, manage payroll and accounting, take out loans, and even raise money entirely online, with the support of many modern software as a service (SaaS) and mobile tools for each. Yet, the process of acquiring insurance is still difficult – 99 percent of small commercial insurance is sold offline through agents.

“We are changing the market with a solution that makes it simple, fast, and transparent for small businesses to find and obtain insurance online vs having to physically visit agents each time they need to make a change,” said Guy Goldstein, chief executive officer, Next Insurance.

He added: “Starting a new small business is exciting, and setting up insurance shouldn’t be slow, cumbersome, or get in the way of what’s important.”

Oren Zeev, founding partner, Zeev Ventures, added: “Next Insurance has secured an unprecedented amount of initial funding, but that reflects the scope of this opportunity. Small business insurance is one of the largest and most profitable industries in our economy, and it has hardly been touched by disruptive technology.

"We are excited to be involved in the company's launch and know it will be a game-changer, given the market need and deep expertise and savvy of this executive team."