Spott is going after e-commerce sellers
Israeli insurance startup Spott is announcing the launch of the “world’s first digital insurance platform designed exclusively for e-commerce sellers.”
As part of a broader suite of financial services, Spott ’s liability insurance offering enables e-commerce businesses to protect their stores against claims and comply with up-to-date insurance requirements from leading marketplaces such as Amazon. The startup has partnered with “top-tier digital brokers and leading commercial carriers in the U.S.” and it currently serves “hundreds of e-commerce sellers worldwide.”
Sellers looking to get a quote will need to connect their Amazon store to their Spott account and Spott also uses Plaid to gather financial data from financial institutions.
Spott offers two other products aside from insurance. The first product is called Inventory Boost – after analyzing the products and historical performance of a seller, Spott may finance the purchase of additional inventory without charging any upfront fees or requesting any securities. The seller pays back the funds only once this inventory was sold in addition to a small service fee that is calculated from the sales that were generated by the financed inventory only. Spott says that this is a risk-free solution – if the inventory doesn’t sell the seller is not obligated to pay the company back.
The second product, Suspension Coverage, is designed to help Amazon sellers keep their product listings active. Spott provides automated auditing to ensure compliance with Amazon’s policy and in the event of a “surprise suspension,” the startup will manage the seller’s appeal process from start to finish.
The startup was founded by Roma Bronstein (CTO), Amit Batzir (chief product and risk officer) and Guy Salame (CEO and former VP of product at Planck ). Spott is a team of 20 with offices in Tel Aviv and New York and it raised $8.3M from Team8 and Viola Ventures.
“We’re witnessing a widening chasm emerge between the rapidly growing e-commerce industry and the established financial services sector that has been operating according to the same principles for decades. Spott bridges the gap between these industries by providing sellers with seamless access to innovative and lucrative financial products tailored to their unique needs. The technology we’ve built enables sellers to succeed and thrive in a highly competitive and dynamic environment that is filled with risks and opportunities.” – Guy Salame, co-founder and CEO of Spott.
“Spott has entered the market at the perfect time. Their technology will dramatically improve underwriting processes, enabling insurers to quantify risk not only on a business level, but also on a product level, and help sellers easily access insurance coverage tailored to their needs. As frontrunners in the insurance space, the table is set for Spott to build a strong global customer base and rollout a much broader suite of financial services that will help sellers accelerate growth, scale faster and manage risk more effectively.” – Yuval Tal, chairman of Spott and managing partner at Team8.
