Brewer Lane Ventures Launches to Invest in Insurtech and Fintech

Brewer Lane Ventures

Brewer Lane Ventures, a Boston, MA-based new venture capital firm focused on investing in the insurtech and fintech industries, has officially launched.

Led by  John Kim, Founder and Managing Partner, Brewer Lane invests in early-stage insurtech and fintech startups by leveraging deep knowledge and experience of working in the insurance and finance industries from founding and scaling startups, venture investing and running Fortune 100 companies.

The firm partners with entrepreneurs focused on creating new business models, empowering incumbents, and leveraging insights from data & analytics.

Prior to founding Brewer Lane Ventures, Kim was President and Chief Investment Officer of New York Life Insurance Company. During his 10 year career at New York Life, he led the growth of the company’s assets from $213 billion to $582 billion, while managing the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. As a career investor, Kim started New York Life Ventures in 2012, which over the subsequent 6 years, produced superior performance. Previously, he held CEO roles in other insurance, retirement, and asset management firms including Prudential Retirement, CIGNA Retirement and Investment Services, and Aeltus Investment Management, a subsidiary of VOYA. Kim is currently a board director at three insurtech startups. Additionally, he is on the board of trustees of Eversource, New England’s largest energy delivery company and a national leader in clean energy. He was also previously on the board of FiServ, a global provider of financial services technology.

Brewer Lane also brought on Martha Notaras as Managing Partner. Notaras previously was a partner at XL Innovate, where she invested in startups focused on data and analytics, as well as new insurance business models. Notaras led investments in Cape Analytics, Pillar, and GeoQuant. Notaras previously ran corporate development for DMG Information, the business technology division of the Daily Mail and General Trust, where she led investment and oversaw 20 acquisitions, including Risk Management Solutions (RMS), an early insurtech delivering catastrophe risk models for insurers and reinsurers.

In addition, Brewer Lane announced the hires of two Principals, Chris Downer and George Castineiras. Before joining Brewer Lane Ventures, Downer was a Principal at Sorenson Ventures and XL Innovate. Castineiras was SVP at Prudential Financial and Managing Director at Gibraltar Ventures.

Finally, Tom Hutton will serve as a Senior Advisor to Brewer Lane Ventures. Hutton serves as the Chairman of SoFi. Hutton founded XL Innovate in 2015 and New Energy Risk in 2011.

FinSMEs

13/01/2020

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