Brazilian insurtech Justos raises a $35M Series A

Justos is a Brazilian insurance company that will be the first to use data to establish insurance policies. It recently announced it has raised $35.8 million in a Series A round led by Ribbit Capital.

Among the new investors are Softbank’s Latin American Fund and GGV. These two join a roster of all-star investors, including Kaszek, BigBets, and the CEOs of two unicorns: David Velez from Nubank and Kavak’s Carlos Garcia Ottati.

Last May, Justos had announced an initial raise of $ 2.8 million that, besides the previously mentioned investors, included Assaf Wand, CEO and co-founder of Hippo Insurance; Sergio Furio, founder and CEO of Creditas; Patrick Sigrist, founder of iFood; and Fritz Lanman, CEO of ClassPass. Senior directors of companies like Robin Hood, Stripe and Capital One also invested in that initial round.

None of Justos’ cofounders is Brazilian, but Dhaval Chadha, Jorge Soto Moreno, and Antonio Molins have broad experience working at Silicon Valley-based companies like ClassPass, Netflix, and Airbnb. Soto Moreno had previously launched his own company called Miroculus, which aimed to democratize access to a timely cancer diagnosis.

Data to improve insurance policies

According to Deloitte, insurtech companies use technology and have a customer-focused approach borrowed from other industries. These types of companies have recently appeared in the global insurance ecosystem, including Crabi and Súper in Latin America.

What Justos is offering in Brazil is an improved process to determine and approve insurance policies. Obtaining insurance in the country is a slow feat. Sometimes, up to 72 hours are needed to get the initial coverage approved and up to two weeks to get the final insurance policy. Justos even claims that many of the conventional insurance companies often do not have fair or transparent prices.

The company will use artificial intelligence and computer vision to analyze and process claims faster. It will also include automatic learning for image analysis and bot creation to help speed up the claims process.

Justos’ new capital will be used to continue hiring and expanding its operations regionally, as well as launching other lines of insurance. The startup currently staffs 30 people and aims to have more than 50 employees by the end of the year, and 200 by the end of 2022.