SoftBank has become the latest in a series of well-known backers investing in a New York based insurance startup, Lemonade, by investing a whopping $120 million. This was the second round of funding held by Lemonade. Other companies that have invested include Allianz, Sequoia Capital and Google Ventures. The startup had raised $60 million prior to the announcement.

Lemonade uses artificial intelligence and bots to minimise paperwork in order to speed up claims process for renters and homeowners. The company was first launched in September 2016 as a licensed insurance carrier in New York. Throughout 2017, the company has worked to obtain insurance licenses in 25 states and sold approximately 80,000 policies since it started a year ago, as reported by the Financial Times.

“Growth has been in excess of our expectations since our last round,” aid Daniel Schreiber, the Chief Executive Officer of Lemonade said. “We will end this year around 90,000 customers, and our target for the year was 13000,” he added. “By combining Big Data and AI with a seamless user experience , Lemonade is truly revolutionising the insurance industry,” David Thevonen , a senior investment professional at SoftBank said. “We have been impressed by the team’s creative approach to disrupting the traditional insurance model.” Lemonade, however, is not SoftBank’s first move into the insurance
market. Earlier this year, SoftBank was a major investor in ZhongAn’s $10 billion IPO in Hong Kong.

(Picture courtesy: Lemonade)