Hellas Direct, a Nicosia, Cyprus-based online insurance company, received an additional equity investment from Portag3 Ventures.
Portag3 bought the minority stake previously held by Third Point LLC. As part of the transaction, Adam Felesky (Chief Executive Officer), along with Paris-based Portag3 partner Hélène Falchier, will join Hellas Direct’s Board of Directors. Falchier has recently joined Portag3 from French insurance company CNP Assurances SA, where she led a number of the group’s private equity investments.
The amounf of the deal was not disclosed.
Founded by Emilios Markou and Alexis Pantazis, two former Goldman Sachs executives who saw an opportunity to disrupt the Greek insurance market as the country was entering the deepest economic recession of modern times, Hellas Direct is a digital-first, full-stack insurance company, empowered by technology and artificial intelligence.
The company recently launched its home-insurance offering in Cyprus in partnership with Swiss Re, and Revolut, a European challenger bank. The three companies introduced a wide range of innovations into the Cyprus market, such as the ability to buy insurance by the day, instant claims settlement and the payback of daily micro-payments to consumers who have not had a claim.
Hellas Direct is backed by Portag3, IFC (a member of the World Bank), Endeavor Catalyst, former Goldman Sachs economist Lord O’Neill and private equity veteran Jon Moulton.
FinSMEs
18/02/2019