Insurtech raises $1.45m in crowdfunding campaign

LifeBid launched the campaign with equity crowdfunding platform Stride Equity in August, following a strategic co-investment of $700,000 from industry partners and the Stride Group.

The raised amount exceeded the original goal of $1 million, with $820,000 coming from crowdfunded investors and $630,000 coming from strategic investors.

LifeBid is the first company that Stride Equity approved for an investment and concurrent hosting on their platform since its launch earlier this year.

The firm is developing an end-to-end technology solution and said it plans to “revolutionise the way life insurance advice is provided and managed”.

The company’s digital platform has been developed to enable financial advice providers and insurers to “seamlessly engage, educate, advise, and manage clients’ life insurance needs”, with LifeBid claiming it can cut costs to serve by up to 90 per cent.

In August, LifeBid founder Brett Wright said: “As advisers ourselves, and like many others in the life insurance sector, we have seen how expensive it has become for consumers to access good quality advice and cover, and experienced how hard, unprofitable, and risky it has become for advisers, licensees, and insurers to help more Australians.

“We want our adviser and licensee industry colleagues to be owners, beneficiaries, and the driving force behind LifeBid. Partnering with the Stride team in this crowdfunding offer will make this possible and we are excited to be their first portfolio company.”

The insurtech’s advisory board includes Financial Advice Association Australia (FAAA) director Katherine Hayes, co-founder and director of Insurtech Australia Vanessa Dobson, Zurich chief distribution officer Kieran Forde, TAL executive general manager – individual life Gavin Teichner, and NEOS Life managing director John de Zwart.

Ms Hayes said: “I invested in LifeBid because it is working with a large cross section of industry partners, to build and deliver the first complete life insurance advice solution, to allow greater efficiency and profitability for advisers, whilst providing an enhanced service offering for our clients.”

LifeBid added that its digital solution aims to connect all industry stakeholders and “enable advisers to seamlessly manage their clients’ needs on a single platform, providing better value and experience for customers”.

It also said there is currently a waitlist of 2,000 advisers for the platform in Australia.

“With a highly experienced founding team, track record of delivery, great product-market fit, and strong industry support, LifeBid ticks all the boxes for us for an investment and we are excited to bring investors this opportunity through our platform,” Maria Halasz, chief executive and co-founder of Stride Equity, added.