A life insurance startup that incentivizes employees to live healthier lifestyles has landed $70 million in fresh funds as it bids to disrupt a multitrillion-dollar industry.
London-based YuLife, which was founded in 2017, differs from traditional life insurance providers, who provide a lump sum upon death, by focusing on offering incentives such as Amazon vouchers and air miles for users to put their health and wellbeing first.
"Wellbeing is at the centre of what we are doing and COVID-19 has really accelerated the growth of our business," Sammy Rubin, CEO of YuLife told Insider.
"Many companies were buying into vision of bringing wellbeing to staff, but COVID-19 has been trigger to growth of our business and we've grown 10x since start of pandemic."
The global life insurance market is valued at around $2.2 trillion, per Swiss Re. YuLife offers its platform to employers with incentives to reward healthy living.
The startup has its own virtual currency, YuCoin, which can be earned by completing everyday wellness activities such as walking, cycling, meditation, and mindfulness. Employees can log their exercises on the company's app, where it will grant them one YuCoin per mile walked.
"There was a lot of demand for this round as insurance is last frontier of financial services that hasn't been disrupted, unlike fintech," Rubin added.
"Life insurance is longer and more complicated so we could tap into the huge appetite from investors for insurtech, life insurance and particularly B2B [business to business] is very attractive."
YuLife's Series B was led by Target Global and supported by new investors Eurazeo and Latitude as well as existing investors Creandum, Notion Capital, Anthemis, MMC Ventures, and OurCrowd.
Funding will go towards growing YuLife's UK operations with Rubin adding that the company was "barely scratching the surface of the market" and will internationalize its offering too. The startup has around 90 members of staff currently and will use this fresh funding to double headcount in the next 18 months.
YuLife's clients include US bank Capital One, grocery business Co-op, fintech Curve, French ad agency Havas Media, British water company Severn Trent, and food services business Sodexo.
"This is an industry that has not seen meaningful innovation for decades," Rubin said. "We want to reimagine life insurance as not just claims when people die but as part of a preventative tool that helps people not get sick."
