By 2025, 1 out of 5 economically active EU citizens will work a platform job. Tech companies like Bolt, Deliveroo, and Wolt have enabled this trend, making them some of Europe’s fastest-growing companies. Now Tallinn, Estonia-based Cachet, an insurance platform and wallet, focusing on gig economy service providers, has secured €5.5 million in funding. The investment round was led by Paris-based Truffle Capital, which is their first investment in the region. Also, Uniqa Ventures and previous backer and lead investor Icebreaker.vc.
European expansion on cards
The funds will be used to grow the company’s team, improve its technology and data models, and expand within Europe. Holding an EU-level insurance distribution license, Cachet operates in Estonia, Latvia, and Poland and serves customers in the UK, Lithuania, and Finland. Besides the investment, Truffle Capital and Icebreaker.vc representatives will join Cachet’s supervisory board.
Bernard-Louis Roques, co-founder and CEO of Truffle Capital: “Cachet has a strong regional footprint in the Baltic region, and a clear long-term vision on how to tackle the platform economy problems from the freelancer’s perspective. Freelancers are the driving force of the new economy. Cachet has developed impressive data capabilities, with unique data assets, data platform and data science resources, which enable it to treat every freelancer individually, and at the same time minimize the risk ratio for its insurance partners, making it a rising force in one of the most dynamic insurtech market.”
Dr. Andreas Nemeth, CEO of UNIQA Ventures: “From an investor’s perspective, the problem Cachet is solving appealed to us right away. The platform economy will continue to grow and therefore it is crucial for insurtechs to cater to the driving force behind most platform giants: platform workers who make that innovation possible, especially in terms of scaling speed. Additionally, Cachet’s data-driven success and its massive growth potential align perfectly with our investment focus. We’re excited to be a strong financial partner for Cachet and their founding team on their journey toward success.”
Insurance services marketplace for gig workers
As traditional insurers struggle to deal with platform work’s unique needs, such as ride-hailing drivers that work across different platforms like Bolt and Uber. This makes worker protection cumbersome and expensive.
Founded in 2018 by Hedi Mardisoo and Kalle Palling, Cachet solves the issue of a platform worker’s employment-related data being spread across multiple platforms by aggregating the data across platforms. By building a better picture of worker employment patterns, it enables insurers to create fair and flexible insurance policies and cut the costs for workers.
Already, Cachet provides more affordable motor insurance for ride-hailing drivers as well as regular consumers, and delivery rider insurance that covers personal injury and property damage, accidents and medical expenses. The company’s new insurance plans will include third-party liability as well as personal health and accident coverage for gig workers.
Recently, the Estonian startup launched a new city rider insurance for lightweight vehicle users and professional liability insurance for its B2B2C customers like car-washers, cleaners, painters and other professionals doing task-based work.
Meanwhile, Cachet is already used by more than 12 insurance underwriters with leading carriers like Allianz, PZU and VIG Group. It works with platforms like Bolt, Uber, Upsteam, Citybee and Cleanify. In Estonia, the company’s first market, Cachet holds 40% of the app-taxi segment’s market share.
