Honey Insurance, which uses smart technology to smooth the buying process and improve risk monitoring, has completed a $108 million funding round as it aims to further challenge “the local home insurance oligopoly”. 

The company says the round was the third-largest Series A fundraising in Australia, and was achieved despite the technology sector experiencing a decline in venture capital investments last year. 

The round was led by Gallatin Point Capital, a US private investment firm with $US5 billion ($7.6 billion) in assets under management. 

Honey founder and CEO Richard Joffe says the business is “delighted to welcome our new partners, who will give us the firepower required over the next 18 months to triple revenues, turn profitable, and double headcount to over 200 people”. 

The insurtech, underwritten by RACQ Insurance, was launched in June 2021 and aims to provide a “no hassles” purchasing process that can be completed in minutes. 

It uses public property information, satellite data and artificial intelligence to estimate rebuild costs and offers customers a smart home sensor kit to monitor risks such as fire, water leaks and intrusion. 

“Australia’s insurance industry has one of the lowest levels of investment into innovation relative to revenues in the world, and we are out to change that,” Honey Chairman and former Foxtel and News Corp CEO Peter Tonagh said. “We are leveraging some of the most innovative technology and data platforms globally to better protect the most valuable asset of most Australians – their homes.” 

Honey won last year’s excellence in insurtech category at the FinTech Australia Finnies Awards. It was also ranked among the top 20 Australian start-ups, according to a list compiled by LinkedIn. 

New investor Gallatin Point’s focus is on financial institutions, and funds managed by it have made a number of insurance sector investments globally. 

“The bar for us to enter a new market like Australia was very high, but the quality of the founding team, impressive growth, and innovative customer solutions that Honey brings to the table was a compelling combination,” MD Lance Toler said. “We came to the conclusion that a genuine challenger like Honey Insurance is well overdue in the Australian homeowners’ insurance industry, and we are excited to be supporting their journey.” 

Honey says the funding round demonstrates that founding teams in Australia compete with the best on the global stage, and the funding positions the business as “a strong challenger to the local home insurance oligopoly”.