Urban Jungle raises £16.5 million

London-based Urban Jungle has raised £16.5 million ($23m) in a Series A funding round led by Intact Ventures, with participation from Ingka Group, the world’s largest IKEA franchise.

Founded in 2016, Urban Jungle offers a variety of policies underwritten by different insurers including contents insurance, buildings insurance, a combination of both, and tenant liability insurance.

The ~50-person startup recently crossed the 100k customer mark.

”We are building a modern insurance provider from scratch, leveraging the latest technology, and using that to create products with fair, transparent prices and easy to understand terms – all whilst making insurance simple, quick and affordable. Fraud is a big problem in our industry, and it drives up the cost for everyone else. The way we use technology gives us a critical edge by being able to screen out fraudsters, and help genuine customers get a much better deal, which is particularly important at the moment. It also helps us with our goal of financial inclusion – being able to tell fraudsters and genuine customers apart helps us have much higher eligibility than our peers.” – Urban Jungle founder and CEO Jimmy Williams.

Urban Jungle will use the funding to rapidly scale its UK Home insurance business, as well as add new markets.

“We’re thrilled to lead Urban Jungle’s Series A financing round and support the company’s mission to modernize the insurance buying journey for its customers. By leveraging the latest in automation as well as a digital-by-default strategy, Jimmy and Greg have built an impressive business that consumers love.” – Justin Smith-Lorenzetti, head of investments at Intact Ventures.