Kota, an Dublin-based insurtech startup focused on simplifying insurance benefits administration, has secured €12.8 mn in a Series A funding round led by Eurazeo.
Other participants include EQT Ventures, Northzone, Frontline Ventures, 9Yards, and Plug and Play. This round brings Kota’s total funding to over €20.2 mn.
The company also received regulatory approval from the Central Bank of Ireland to operate as an insurance intermediary, enabling it to serve clients across the UK and European Economic Area.
This development marks a significant step in Kota’s strategy to establish itself as a core infrastructure provider for embedded insurance across Europe.
Founded in 2022, Kota offers a digital platform that connects insurers with employers, HR systems, and payroll providers.
Luke Mackey, Founder and CEO said: “Employee benefits, which can make up 25% of total compensation, are systematically undervalued and expensive. I experienced this as a Founder and a GM – managing benefits in email, between brokers and insurance companies, completely disconnected and alien from anything else in the business”.
It’s entirely out of date. Ultimately, no one on the team connected or engaged with them, no matter how much we invested. It’s not surprising. Insurance benefits are delivered in clunky portals or in PDFs, which is so unengaging compared to the financial experiences employees are used to.
Luke Mackey, Founder and CEO
“Kota integrates directly with insurance companies so we can control that experience and make it easy to roll out and run benefits, no matter who you are or where your team is. This means that employees can quickly understand, enrol, access coverage, retirement plans, or other benefits, and actually value them,” Luke Mackey said.
Its focus is on improving how small and mid-sized businesses access and manage insurance benefits.
The company addresses inefficiencies by offering direct integrations with insurance carriers, aiming to reduce costs and improve clarity for both employers and employees.
Kota currently supports more than 150 organizations, including Remote and Helios. With the new funding, it plans to scale its carrier integrations and further develop its platform, continuing its effort to modernize the employee benefits market.
Kota integrates with insurance providers like Vitality in the UK, ONVZ in the Netherlands, Sanitas in Spain, Allianz Global Care internationally, and more.
Kota powers benefits for Remote.com, and has become the benefits platform of choice for scale-ups across Europe such as Zoe Health, Poolside, Carwow, Tines, &Open and Protex AI.
Last year, they launched Kota Embed, their embedded insurance offering for HR platforms to make insurance benefits available to their customers without leaving their HRIS or Payroll tool, with customers like Remote, Helios and insurance companies like Irish Life Health as customers.
Kota looks to deliver a modern, user-first experience for employee benefits. It integrates directly with insurers and pension providers, giving employees real-time access and control, and HR teams a single platform to manage everything.
The funding will be used to expand the Kota team, increase the variety of insurance carrier partners in its products, and accelerate customer acquisition.
