Stere raises $5m from alternatives & re/insurance investor Vida Capital

Stere, an insurance technology (insurtech) start-up that has created a capacity platform to help connect embedded insurance partners and MGA’s to reinsurance capital, has announced a $5 million Seed+ capital raise from investment manager Vida Capital.

Stere’s insurtech platform aims to better connect providers of insurance and reinsurance capacity with managing general agents (MGA’s), program administrators, and embedded insurance platforms.

The company has a stated desire to connect sources of insurance-linked securities (ILS) capital to these market participants, enabling ILS fund managers to become a source of startup capacity for new insurance businesses.

Stere’s platform offers Capacity APIs to connect re/insurance market participants, those seeking capacity with those managing it, as well as a Capacity Trading Platform enabling MGA’s who have an existing book of business to access alternative capacity sources (insurance, reinsurance, or alternative capital) for their programs, with capacity secured on an ongoing basis.

Investment manager Vida Capital has now thrown its backing behind Stere, bringing its capital and expertise in alternative investments, as well as insurance and reinsurance linked investments.

Vida Capital, Inc. is an alternative investment manager with a largely life settlement and insurance-linked securities (ILS) focus, as well as some other alts.

“Vida Capital brings a tremendous amount of expertise in reinsurance, ILS and structured solutions, which supports Stere’s vision of building a trading forum of all kinds of capacity in a one-stop-shop,” Stere CEO and Founder Dogan Kaleli explained.

“Vida’s funding will fuel further expansion of our trading platform, allowing us to continue creating the smart tech-driven solutions that our stakeholders have come to rely on to help support and grow their businesses.”

“We are excited to partner with the team at Stere to take reinsurance risk transfer to the next level,” added Head of Structured Credit at Vida Capital Peter Polanskyj. “We look forward to the prospect of the company offering a one-stop solution to a broad set of constituents with their capacity needs, be they traditional MGAs and brokers, insurtechs or embedded partners.

“As a reinsurance capacity provider and asset manager of insurance and reinsurance account assets, we see the value of the model Stere envisions for the future. Dogan and team have a great vision for the reinsurance market and we are excited about the strategic possibilities for both Stere and Vida on an ongoing basis.”

By May this year, Stere had signed on more than fifty MGAs, representing over $1.5 billion in annual premium.

At the same time, Stere had helped 20+ embedded insurance partners access capacity from key carriers and reinsurers.

The company had raised $2 million in late 2021 to fuel its expansion.