Berlin-based Wefox has become the most valuable privately held insurtech following its latest mega-funding round . The rapidly expanding insurtech raised US $ 400mn , boosting the company ’ s valuation to US $ 4.4bn – a 50 % increase on its previous valuation just over a year ago .

Founded in 2015 , Wefox recently reached two million customers with its range of insurance products and services through in-house and external brokers . It has also grown faster than direct-to-consumer models of insurtech competitors , which include rival German startup Getsafe , to become the fastest expanding insurtech in Europe .

Wefox founder and CEO Julian Teicke credits the company ’ s strategy of growing its user base by getting third-party brokers to use the insurtech to advise their own customers , with revenues doubling to US $ 320mn in 2021 . He called the model " unique in the insurtech space " since all other companies sell directly to the consumer .

� BRANCH INSURANCE Branch Insurance , the Ohio-based home and auto insurance startup , has raised US $ 147mn in its Series C funding round and achieved unicorn status in the process . It now has a post-money valuation of US $ 1.05bn .

� INSTANDA Instanda , which provides no-code software tools for the insurance industry , has raised US $ 45mn to grow its presence in Europe , the US , Japan and the UAE . The funds will also be used to “ augment platform capabilities ”.

� LEMONADE Lemonade has announced that 20 % of staff at auto insurtech Metromile will not be retained , after the unicorn completed its acquisition of the California-based company . The layoffs amount to about 60 employees .

� NEXT INSURANCE Next Insurance has axed 150 employees , mainly from its US operations , in an attempt to steer the company back towards profitability . Insurtechs generally are having to downsize to survive the current economic climate .

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