Marshmallow raises $85 million

London-based car insurance provider Marshmallow has raised $85 million in a Series B funding round that included Investec, Passion Capital and SCOR. The company is now valued at over $1.25 billion.

Founded in 2015, the company (a team of ~150) offers car insurance for foreign drivers living in the UK. Insurance partners include AXA. “We didn’t start Marshmallow because we loved insurance. Actually, quite the opposite. It was 2015 and the three of us were working together at another start-up. One day, we were talking to a friend of ours who had recently moved to the UK. They were trying to get car insurance but kept getting hit by these outrageously expensive quotes. And we didn’t have to look very hard to see why. Traditional insurers cash in on migrant drivers. In fact, traditional insurers cash in on a lot of people. Why? Because they work from a default position of distrust, and judge them based on impersonal and outdated systems. In short, the whole industry is broken. So we started Marshmallow!”

The company plans to offer new products and services and also expand into other insurance product lines and into other markets across Europe.