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U.S. Insurtech Assurely’s Latest Seed Rounds Brings Total Amount Raised to $3.7 Million

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Assurely, a U.S.-based insurtech that provides embedded insurance as a service, recently announced its closed its seed round, which was led by ATX Ventures. The company reported that the investment round brought its total funding to just more than $3.7 million.

Founded in 2016, Assurely describes itself as an insurtech company that creates and distributes insurance products for changing industries.

“Our technology drives a new model for insurance that supports the new and changing risks created by the fundamental changes in our economy and lives.”

Assurely further revealed it launched its first product, TigerMark, which is a directors and officers–like insurance program targeting the massive changes in how companies use technology and the internet to find investors and raise capital, primarily via the JOBS Act – Reg A, Reg CF and Reg D-506(c). The insurtech claims that no other insurance company is currently providing appropriate insurance for this market. Speaking about the investment, Chris Shonk, Co-Founder and Partner at ATX Ventures, stated:

“Assurely is absolutely the exact right team positioned at the exact right time to capture this market. ATX is thrilled to back such an exceptional and ambitious team to lead their debut institution round of funding.”

The investment round’s funds will enable Assurely to aggressively expand its technology infrastructure and to bring more products to market in record time. The company did not disclose the full amount raised through the round.

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AltoIRA, a Fintech that Enables Individuals to Use their IRA to Invest in Startups, Finalizes Crowdunding Campaign on Republic

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AltoIRA, a Fintech firm that enables individuals to use their IRA to make investments in startups, private real estate, crypto-assets, and art has finalized a “unique” $1 million crowdfunding campaign on Republic, a leading US-based investment crowdfunding platform.

As confirmed in a note shared with CI, AltoIRA has previously secured more than $9.8M in capital from well-known investors such as Moment Ventures, Jefferson River Capital (Vice-Chair of Blackstone Tony James’s Family Office), T.H. Lee, Sequoia Scout, Foundation Capital, Amplify LA, and Alumni Venture Group.

As mentioned in the update:

“AltoIRA is seeing surging demand from individuals for alternative investments. Total active users on their platform have grown nearly 5 times in the last 12 months, and they now have more than 21 partners who accept IRAs for investments – AngelList, Republic, Masterworks, among them. Retirement investors are interested in alternatives for several reasons, including better diversification to manage election volatility.”

As reported last month, AltoIRA had partnered with Republic to enable IRA investors to hold securities sold via Republic.

According to AltoIRA, Republic’s members may now invest in privately-held startups using their IRAs. AltoIRA allows individuals to set up an IRA to invest in alternative assets including private equity, real estate investments, venture capital, private funds, cryptocurrency, securitized art, and more.

According to the offering page, AltoIRA had been seeking up to $1.07 million (the Reg CF funding cap) in a SAFE with a 10% discount. AltoIRA had a valuation cap of $30 million. 

Eric Satz, founder and CEO of AltoIRA, had said they are committed to leveling the playing field when it comes to providing opportunities to investors and accessing alternative asset classes:

Satz had also mentioned:

“Through our partnership with Republic, investors can now use their IRAs to invest in mission-driven startups like AltoIRA. We have several additional partnerships in the works that will provide retirement savers with even more opportunities to diversify their savings in long-term investments with higher returns.”

AltoIRA reports that its investors invest 4x the amount than non-Alto investors do, per investment. Additionally, Alto investors go on to make 2x the number of investments as non-Alto investors.

The offering page states that Alto has 1,230+ active, funded accounts with approximately 3,000 active investments and more than $75 million in assets under custody.

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Crowdfund Capital Advisors Now Providing Crowdfunding Data to Bloomberg

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Crowdfund Capital Advisors (CCA) is now providing its data services to Bloomberg Data License clients via Bloomberg Enterprise Access Point, according to a release.

CCA is a data service covering securities offering issued under crowdfunding exemptions including Reg CF as well as Reg A+ and Reg D 506c.

CCA normalizes data from thousands of offerings into a single format. CCA states that there are over 100 different metrics within the dataset that include: offering date, company description, location, incorporation date, price per share, valuation, capital raised, Naics code classification, summary income statement and balance sheets, number of employees and more.

CCA has been collecting pre-IPO/startup and small business data for online offerings completed under the 2012 JOBS Act. CCA reports that it is now updating over 3,000 private offerings from over 890 locations across the United States on a daily basis.

“The 2012 JOBS Act ushered in a new era of online investing,” stated Sherwood Neiss, principal at CCA. “But until now it was difficult for Wall Street, analysts, venture capital, asset managers and hedge funds to have a clear understanding of issuers raising money, how this industry is evolving or what it means for the broader capital markets. This partnership with Bloomberg was one of the missing links. We are excited for what this awareness will do for the industry.”

Jason Best, principal at CCA, added that the data helps analysts understand more about the economic impact of online capital formation:

“The data goes down to zip-code level and as such can show investor sentiment and Startup/SME sentiment at the most detailed level. This is important visibility for the industry and we believe can accelerate its growth.”

Launched in September 2018, Bloomberg Enterprise Access Point is the company’s web-based data marketplace that allows Data License clients to easily discover, access, and immediately use high quality, market-leading content from both Bloomberg and third-party providers.

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