Montoux closes $10.5M in oversubscribed funding to accelerate global growth bringing pricing transformation to life insurers
The investment is geared towards scaling the company’s existing operations in the United States, Japan and Hong Kong, and making inroads in the UK
NEW YORK CITY (July 4, 2019) - Montoux, the global leader in pricing transformation for life insurers, announced today that it has raised $10.5M in funding this year in rounds that included firms from across the APAC region, and well known former life insurance executives. The funds will be used to accelerate the company’s growth into Hong Kong, Japan and North America - allowing it to increase sales and customer success operations, further scale the development of its software, and add to its substantial actuarial and data science capabilities.
Montoux provides pricing transformation for the life insurance industry (an industry responsible for US $2trn annual gross written premiums globally). The insurtech company combines traditional actuarial science and advanced data science techniques to provide highly detailed pricing analytics, sensitivity analysis, competitive intelligence and price optimization for life insurers.
“With this investment, we’re able to rapidly build on our existing success in both in the US, and Asia,” says Co-CEO of Montoux Geoff Keast. “We’ve established that we have a compelling proposition with our customers, and we know we can scale that in a sustainable way. The fact is most life insurers have no way to know what products, experiences and prices will be most compelling to their customers. We give them that knowledge, which allows them to improve financial performance, and achieve their broader innovation ambitions.”
Montoux’s proposition is a compelling one for investors interested in enterprise SaaS companies with high scaling potential. Nelson Wang of Zino Ventures says that this is what drew them to join the round. “This is a well established team with impressive leadership that has proven their proposition with some of the largest life insurance companies in the world. That’s no mean feat, and is exactly the type of company we look to invest in. We’re excited to be a part of their plan for expansion into Asia.
Montoux is trusted at a global level in an industry that is famously risk (read:change) averse. With offices in Wellington, New York and Hong Kong, the company has signed some of the largest global names in life insurance. MetLife, AIA, TAL (a subsidiary of Dai-ichi Life), Haven Life (a subsidiary of MassMutual) and Deloitte are among the relationships the company has revealed publically, but this number includes multiple customers in the US and abroad that Montoux is unable to disclose.
In addition to the most recent fundraising round and team growth, Montoux has just added Scott Houston to a board that already boasts fintech heavy-weights Sam Knowles, Founding CEO of KiwiBank, and the recent winner of NZ’s Director of the Decade (Companies Knowles directed achieved returns 37.4 percentage points above the NZX average), ex Deloitte Partner Charles Hett, and Chairperson Serge van Dam. Van Dam is clear about Montoux’s path forward, “this investment allows Montoux to execute on our very ambitious plans. The life insurance industry is ready for and must change, and Montoux is the right company to provide transformational innovation at the core of their business - pricing products and propositions.”
The past year has seen a serious growth phase for the company, with Montoux’s workforce having doubled since 2018. Acquisitions include top talent sourced from backgrounds at Apple, Deloitte, Xero, 8i, and most recently AMP’s Shelley Cox, who will direct Customer Success for the growing list of insurance companies using Montoux.
