In tandem, the InsurTech announced a strategic partnership with Allstate that will combine the companies' expertise in small business insurance to develop and offer new products to the market, as well as a commitment to deepening its reinsurance relationship with Allianz.
Ardea Partners LP served as financial advisor to Next.
"Building on our existing support, we are excited to welcome Allianz X and Allstate as investors, deepen our reinsurance relationship with Allianz Re, and foster a meaningful partnership with Allstate to offer millions of their customers our one-stop-shop small business insurance offering,” said Guy Goldstein, CEO and co-founder of Next.
Next mainly operates as a managing general agency, writing on paper provided by Munich Re, a major investor in the business. The InsurTech also owns a small insurance carrier in Delaware, allowing it a degree of control over product and rate filings.
The investment comes as InsurTech’s struggle with a difficult fundraising environment. As have many of its peers in the space, Next reduced staff by 17% in July last year.
The InsurTech also shelved a private capital raise it launched in the fourth quarter of 2021 in early 2022, this publication reported.
At the Inside P&C conference in New York last month, venture capital specialist Adrian Jones emphasized that the InsurTech industry is back to 2018 to 2019 levels of funding. He noted that, while this is not a historical high, neither is it a historical low.
Jones said that in 2020 to 2021, investors were not "discriminatory enough” in choosing which ventures to support. Now, they are deploying their capital more deliberately.
