The US pet insurance market is growing – 66% of households now own a pet and more than 4.8m pets were insured last year, a 125% increase from 2018. With a differentiated distribution route, strong traction and execution focus, Insurtech Gateway is delighted to be backing US-based, tech-enabled pet insurtech Rainwalk alongside Manchester Story, Bridge Capital and Seaplane Ventures. The $4m seed round will provide growth capital, allowing Josh and the Rainwalk team to continue barking up the right tree.
What does Rainwalk do?
Rainwalk is an embedded pet insurance MGA distributing via integrations with animal health and wellness platforms, meaning nominal marketing spend. They offer Pet Health insurance in the United States, providing coverage for common (and sometimes less common) accidents and illnesses a pet may experience.
What got us excited?
Innovative Distribution Approach:
Rainwalk is delivering an embedded one-click purchase experience right at the point of need for the pet parent. These animal health and wellness platforms and their prevalence in the US are relatively new, gaining prominence over the last 5-7 years. The tech build barrier needed to support fully embedded quote bind and payment processing is high, a barrier to entry which has slowed manual and D2C market participants greatly. Targeting new-born and often mixed breed pets has carved Rainwalk a two-fold differentiation advantage: 1) 3x higher conversion rates vs market average, 2) Considerably healthier underwriting performance vs market average.
Commercial traction:
Gross Written Premium has grown to $3m in its first two years of operating, and continues to show strong month-on-month growth rates. Having successfully integrated with three animal health and wellness platforms, and a further four committed since investment, Rainwalk is showing no signs of slowing down. Currently licensed in 22 States, with a view to becoming fully regulated in all 50, Josh is only scratching on the surface of true market potential. This is all supported by a strong panel of (re)insurance partners Allianz and Convex, with Incline Casualty Company appointed as their fronting carrier.
Team – Nimble, hungry, considered:
And all pet-lovers too. Josh (Founder and CEO) has had several years of enterprise sales B2B experience, a critical trait to delivering on growth goals. Other senior team members have an impressive list of accolades themselves – to mention a few: Chloe Gill spearheads sales, and built the breeder and shelter channels from scratch at Trupanion, with over a decade of direct pet health insurance sales experience. On the claims and underwriting side, TJ and Mike have years of experience in traditional insurance as Claims Managers. Brittney Burgett leads on strategy, and has been in Insurtech for over 10 years, joining scale-up Life Insurance business HavenLife as employee number 6.
Significant Market Opportunity:
There are approximately 141 million dogs and cats in the U.S, with about 7 million new pets bought every year – the market opportunity which Rainwalk is targeting. Pet ownership and pet insurance has increased significantly over the past three decades, with 66% of US households owning a pet (vs 56% in 1988). As of 2022, more than 4.8 million pets are insured in the U.S, a 125% increase from 2018. We’re also seeing noticeable generational swings – millennials now comprise the highest percentage of pet owners in the U.S (33%), presenting an emerging market opportunity (Forbes).
Summary
The $4m of equity funding will fuel investments in people, product and tech that power alternate distribution channels and further differentiate Rainwalk’s pet health ecosystem in the marketplace. We’re delighted to be working with Josh and team, and look forward to joining the journey!
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