P/C Insurers Liberty Mutual, Starr Join Investors in Bitcoin Firm NYDIG

April 9, 2021

New York Digital Investment Group, an asset manager focused on bitcoin investments, has raised $100 million it will use to expand the use of bitcoin in insurance.

The round comes just a month after announcing $200 million in new financing.

NYDIG, a subsidiary of asset manager Stone Ridge, said this week it raised $100 million of growth capital from strategic partners including property/casualty insurers Starr Insurance, Liberty Mutual Insurance and others.

The New York-based company also announced that Mike Sapnar, a 30-year insurance industry veteran of insurance and former CEO of TransRe, is joining NYDIG as global head of Insurance Solutions to focus on accelerating bitcoin use in in the global property/casualty industry.

Sapnar will be joined by Matt Carey, NYDIG’s U.S. head of Insurance Solutions, who will be focused on bitcoin for U.S.-based life insurance and annuity providers. Prior to joining NYDIG, Carey was co-founder and CEO of Blueprint Income, an online annuity marketplace recently acquired by MassMutual from Stone Ridge.

The latest $100 million capital round follows an earlier a $200 million round led by Stone Ridge Holdings Group, Morgan Stanley, New York Life, MassMutual, Soros Fund Management, and FS Investments. Bessemer Venture Partners and FinTech Collective, which led the two prior funding rounds for NYDIG, were also significant participants.

According to NYDIG, life, annuity and P/C insurers now own, in aggregate, more than $1 billion of direct and indirect bitcoin exposure facilitated exclusively by NYDIG and held on NYDIG’s platform.

Robert Gutmann, co-founder and CEO of NYDIG, noted that the global P/C insurance industry pays out more than $1 trillion in claims annually and the addition of Starr and Liberty Mutual is part of NYDIG’s expansion of bitcoin into new areas of insurance.

“We see a brighter bitcoin-powered future for the billions who depend on the insurance industry every year,” said Ross Stevens, CEO of Stone Ridge and executive chairman of NYDIG.

Topics Carriers Property Casualty

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