Israel-headquartered Windward, which has a UK presence and whose board of directors includes Lord John Browne, has raised $16.5 million in its latest financing round – bringing the total amount so far to $38.9 million. Marc Benioff, the CEO of cloud computing firm Salesforce, was reportedly part of the funding round.
Part of the funds will go towards expanding the marine risk management start-up’s office in London, according to a Globes report. Meanwhile over on home turf Tel Aviv, Windward will use the money to recruit development staff.
The Series C financing round was led by XL Group’s insurtech venture capital firm XL Innovate, whose managing partner Tom Hutton (pictured) will become part of Windward’s board as part of the backing.
“There is a huge opportunity in the marine insurance market,” the Israeli publication quoted Hutton as saying. “Windward has made itself the leader in the industry after acquiring the trust of many governments and law enforcement authorities around the world.
“Now they are expanding impressively in the insurance market. We expect to support Windward later through both investment and with our time and resources.”
Meanwhile Windward co-founder and chief executive Ami Daniel cited expansion plans not only when it comes to workforce but also in terms of offerings.
Daniel added, as quoted by the report: “We bring the know-how and understanding from the world of shipping and anchor it in data science so that the insurance companies can use the information to advise the insured company exactly what risk it can handle.”
