Australian digital insurance broker UpCover has secured $19 mn in a Series A funding round to accelerate the growth of its platform. To revolutionise how Australian business owners access all commercial insurance including public and products liability, professional indemnity, and business insurance in Australia.
UpCover plans to use the newly secured capital to expand its suite of digital insurance products throughout 2025.
The funding will support the firm’s growth beyond its current base of 60,000 businesses, addressing a market where only 5% of commercial insurance transactions in Australia are conducted digitally—compared to over 60% in home and motor insurance.
The investment round included $11 mn in equity funding, led by RealVC, with participation from Antler Elevate’s Global Fund, Betterlabs, and Gandel Invest, according to a report from Capital Brief. Additionally, the company secured $8 mn in debt financing from Marshall Investments.
Founded in 2021 by Skye Theodorou, Anish Sinha, and Sajjad Naveed, UpCover is a digital-first commercial insurance broker aiming to modernise the industry.
Its platform supports small businesses looking for insurance, supporting them to find various policy types, including allied health professionals, public & property liability, professional indemnity, cyber & privacy liability and management, sole traders and association liability.
We’ve defied the odds with UpCover. Not only has the business thrived during one of the hardest years Australia’s startup industry has seen, but we’re also competing against four of Australia’s largest companies who control 80% of our market
Skye Theodorou, Co-founder of UpCover
“We’re especially proud that we’ve achieved this during one of the toughest years for Australia’s startup industry. Not only have we doubled our revenue in 2024, but we’ve also halved our costs – showing just how committed we are to providing Australian businesses a fresh approach to business insurance solutions,” Skye Theodorou says.
The $20 bn Australian business insurance industry has remained stubbornly analogue, with the customer deeply unhappy with the experience and coverage. This has provided an enormous opportunity for a digital disruptor to change the paradigm.
Paul Saunders, partner at RealVC
“When we started upcover, we saw a problem we knew we had to fix. Over 95% of commercial insurance in Australia is analogue still gets, with Business owners are faced with PDF forms that they need to fill in every year. The emails, with countless emails and calls and face to face meetings that can take days, weeks and months to complete. We knew there had to be a better way. That’s why we’ve built upcover – it’s a platform that gives business owners access to makes market leading insurance like essential coverage like public liability insurance and professional indemnity insurance, simple, easy and accessible work better for your business,” startup says.
