Abu Dhabi-based InsurTechHala has successfully closed its Series A round at $5M. The round was led by Entrée Capital, with participation from Mubadala Investment Company, EQ2 Ventures,Global Founders Capital,500 Startups, and Hambro Perks Oryx Fund.
Launched in 2018, Hala set forth on a mission to reconcile payments between motor insurance companies in the UAE using blockchain. In the last quarter of 2020, Hala switched gears and shifted efforts to revolutionize and disrupt theInsurtech industry by making insurance lovable, affordable, and accessible.
Fueled by a pandemic-induced need for disruption in the Medical and Healthcare fields, The Healthcare industry across Emerging Venture Markets caught pace in 2020 reaching a record-high investment. As observed in our H1 2021 EVM Healthcare Venture Investment Report, capital deployed In Healthcare startups in the first half of the year accounted for over half (54%) that deployed in FY 2020. More on the healthcare venture space across MENA, Turkey, and Pakistan in our featured articles later this week.
“People would love insurance if insurance loved them back”
Having dealt with insurance difficulties from a user experience, brothers Walid and Karim Dib understood and mapped out the frustrations in the industry including its lack of digitization and transparency, and most importantly insurance retailers’ rigid and apathetic approaches. So they launched Hala, currently serving thousands of users in a user-centric approach. In light of this recent investment, Walid Daniel Dib, CEO, and Co-Founder of Hala commented “People would love insurance if insurance loved them back. The region’s insurers have focused too hard on selling a product before understanding the customer’s knowledge and preferences. Hala aims to bridge the gap between insurance misconceptions and people’s needs. We’re proud to have partnered up with the regional and global investors to make this vision a reality.”
The UAE-based InsurTech plans to utilize its newly acquired funds to expand its new products such as home insurance, as well as growing the company further in the rest of the Middle East, starting with Saudi Arabia. Avi Eyal, co-founder and Managing Partner, Entrée Capital concluded “We met Karim and Walid last year and were immediately taken by their startup mentality, their will to succeed, and their ability to analyze and build Hala with very little capital. From a serendipitous meeting, our relationship has grown and we found their approach to build a tech-driven, disruptive insurance company in the Middle East to be an exciting prospect so we have put our full weight behind the team and look forward to many successes ahead”.
