Hollard-backed Open, the insurtech behind the Huddle brand, is gearing up to launch in New Zealand this Christmas period and in the UK next year after raising $31 million in new capital from investors.

The second round of fund raising - known as Series B financing for start-ups - takes the total capital that Open has secured from investors to $53 million.

Co-founder Jason Wilby says the Series B proceeds represent a “big, big raise” for the business as it looks to step up its Australian presence and at the same time, expand into New Zealand and the UK.

The business had in May announced it would launch in New Zealand, offering motor and home contents products through a partnership with Tower Insurance. Tower will underwrite the personalised digital products as part of the partnership.

“This $31 million, it’s really all about growth now,” Mr Wilby told insuranceNEWS.com.au today. “It’s a big, big raise for us, to be able to start working across three markets, but we’re confident given that we’ve been able to get the business to operate sustainably as well in the last five years.”

He says the business is working very closely with Tower and that he is expecting Huddle will be “going live around Christmas”.

Open will be replicating its Australia distribution strategy in New Zealand and the UK, selling Huddle-branded products and also via white-labelling with leading businesses with a strong branding presence.

In Australia where it has more than 70,000 customers, Open offers white-label personal insurance such as home and motor to Telstra and Medibank-owned health insurer ahm.

Hollard underwrites its products in the Australian market.

“We will follow the same distribution model in New Zealand and the UK as well as continue to invest in Huddle, but also embedding some products on a white label basis as well,” Mr Wilby said.

For the Australian market, he says the business will continue to “embed” Huddle with new partnerships and also invest further in the brand.

“And we will also continue to build out some of those successful white label partnerships like ahm where we can bring insurance to customers and make sure it’s available where they need it,” Mr Wilby said.

The Series B round of funding was led by Movac of New Zealand, the UK’s Latitude and returning investor AirTree Ventures.

“Insurtech is years behind payments and lending in terms of digitisation and it’s in need of renewed focus on customer outcomes,” Movac Partner Jason Graham said.

“Open is the leading embedded insurance player across Australia and New Zealand.”