View this article online: https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/national/2021/04/27/611704.htm
A start-up managing general agency focused on auto insurance for underserved populations including immigrants and Latin Americans has raised seed funding to help it launch an initial product.
Sigo pulled in $1.5 million in financing from Amicle Capital, Bonded Capital Ventures, Demeter Capital, Financial Solutions Lab, Park City Angels, and gANGELS.
Néstor Hugo Solari and Júlio Erdos founded Sigo in 2019. Since then, the agency has been selling auto insurance in Texas and California, the two states where customers can currently access its bilingual platform.
The company wants to go further with its offerings to help customers with limited insurance and credit histories by removing rate factors that it identifies as biased against the immigrant and Latinx communities it serves. Sigo said it plans to launch its own insurance product in Texas that ends the use of “discriminatory metrics” and instead uses tools such as telematics and its own Spanish-language safe driving app.
“Traditional auto insurance companies favor a specific type of customer—affluent, suburban drivers who have consistent coverage and can afford increased coverage limits. But this largely excludes a demographic that’s made up more than half of America’s growth in the last decade— the Latinx population,” Solari, co-founder and CEO, said in prepared remarks. “Customers are left penalized for having limited credit, education, or insurance history, factors that have zero impact on how you drive.”
“Emerging standard auto insurance is a $20 billion market, but because basic liability coverage is less profitable for legacy insurers, they ignore and/or overcharge customers,” said Karl Gouverneur, chief technology officer at Struxtion, former CTO at Northwestern Mutual, and an investor in Sigo. “Sigo has built a solution for a vastly underserved segment of customers who, unfortunately, may only know a discriminatory system.”
In addition to Gouverneur, Sigo’s advisory board members include Bob Sargent, specialty lines insurance founder (Tennant Risk Services Insurance Agency), advisor and investor; and Bill Goddard, an insurance veteran and investor at Electromagnetic Advisors.
Source: Sigo