Pet insurance startup Napo has raised £15 million in a Series A funding in a round led by DN Capital and backed by Companion Fund, MTech Capital and Picus Capital.
Napo's insurtech platform offers pet owners policy quotes in minutes. Only a £75 flat-fee is payable when an animal requires treatment, but Napo claims the rest of the cost is usually covered up to its £16,000 threshold.
It also offers access to 24/7 online vet consultations, as well as offering dental coverage, money to help find missing pets and third-party liability cover.
Napo states that it has insured over 35,000 pets since its launch in December 2021. The startup was founded by Jean-Phillipe Doumeng, a former executive director for the doctor-on-demand app Babylon Health.
In 2021, Global Market Insights (GMI) valued the pet insurance market at around $7.9 billion. This is estimated to increase by a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.1% between 2022 and 2023.
Much of this expansion will be driven by the rising costs of veterinary care, GMI reported, as well as the recent surge in demand for pet insurance caused by the growing popularity of pet adoption and the shift from pet ownership to pet parenting.
This reflected the exact market that Napo wanted to penetrate. Beyond simple insurance products, Napo is also providing its customers with pet health information, pet ownership education and other services that set itself apart from other UK pet insurers.
“Our mental model is fundamentally different from traditional pet insurance,” Doumeng said in a statement. “We are aligning all stakeholders to look in the same direction by helping people to take better care of their pets.”
