Urban Jungle raises £2.5M for accessible digital insurance

Urban Jungle recently raised £2.5 million in seed funding round. The startup provides digital insurance targeted at so-called “generation rent”, offering a range of insurance products.

Said to be backed by a both new and previous investors, the round has seen investment from Rob Devey, ex CEO of Prudential UK, and Simon Rogerson, CEO of Octopus Group.

Urban Jungle has been said to challenge traditional insurance providers, catering to a group historically underserved by the insurance industry; U.K. renters. Urban Jungle offers contents insurance, gadget insurance and tenants liability policies.

Urban Jungle also offers a pay-as-you-go policy, and is committed to transparent pricing policy terms.

“We are fixing home insurance, which has a load of problems to work on,” says Jimmy Williams, Urban Jungle co-founder. “Of all of types of personal insurance, it’s still the one most bought and managed offline, mostly through estate agents, banks and mortgage brokers. Prices are high, terms are complex, and there are fees for everything”.

Williams also says that far too often customers are asked many questions about things outside of their control, which nobody likes, and that customers are becoming more and more aware of how outdated and unfair pricing can be. “Much of this is caused by insurers’ inability to use new sources of data appropriately,” he adds.

Urban Jungle fights against this, aiming to be cheaper, and easier for customers to buy, manage and claim, providing cover that is better suited to its customers’ needs.

“All of this is enabled through technology,” says Williams. “We automate the vast majority of processes to make things super quick, and keep our costs very low. We also use data in smart ways to customise the cover we offer to customers, and make pricing fairer”.

To that end, Urban Jungle claims 15,000 plus customers and says it’s growing over 30 percent per month. Meanwhile, today’s newly disclosed funding brings the total raised by the U.K. company to £3.7 million to date.