Leading insurtech marketplace will expand its operations and partnerships across the automotive retail ecosystem
Vermont-based Dealer Policy, an online insurance marketplace for automotive retail, announced that it had raised $110 million in its latest Series C investment round. The investment was led by the Growth Equity business within Goldman Sachs Asset Management (Goldman Sachs) with participation from existing investors including 3L Capital and Hudson Structured Capital Management Ltd. (doing its re/insurance business as HSCM Bermuda). Goldman Sachs’ Paul Pate will join the company’s board of directors.
“DealerPolicy has successfully pioneered the assimilation of personal insurance into the automotive retail process, in a unified and compliant manner,” said Paul Pate, a Vice President in the Growth Equity business within Goldman Sachs Asset Management. “We’re thrilled to support the DealerPolicy team as they continue to transform the purchase of cars and insurance.”
2021 is turning into a banner year for DealerPolicy
The company says that the investment will be used to accelerate the growth of the company’s next-generation finance and insurance (F&I) offerings for both dealers and car buyers, enabling automotive insurance to be seamlessly integrated online and at the point-of-sale. In addition, it will expand its operations to further develop and embed modern day insurance throughout the entire car shopping and ownership experience. As a result, the company is expecting to triple both its product and engineering teams over the next 12 months by bringing on new talent.
Dealerpolicy also will look to creating and expanding investments in its strategic partnerships.
“We started the company with the vision of providing a more convenient, transparent, and connected car-buying experience,” said Travis Fitzgerald, Co-Founder and CEO of DealerPolicy. “The funding comes at a time when we’re seeing mainstream adoption of automotive insurance into dealer sales and F&I processes driven by consumer desire for new dealership practices. This investment will allow us to advance our next-generation F&I offering, which provides consumers with competitive coverage options and tangible savings, as well as greatly increases dealer profitability.”
With the infusion of this latest round of funding, DealerPolicy has now raised an impressive $140 million so far this year. As our readers may remember, back in February the company announced that it had raised $30 million as a result of its Series B Funding Round.
A local, independent agency with an idea to transform automotive retail industry
DealerPolicy is an interesting case of an independent insurance agency that has transformed itself into an “integrated insurance solution to the automotive retail industry.” The company, founded in 2016, also owns DealerPolicy Insurance, its wholly-owned insurance agency. Together the platform is able to offer its network of 800 dealers both automotive and insurance options, creating a seamless integration of insurance into the car-buying process.
According to its latest results, the company states that: “[I]t has provided $13 million dollars in annualized insurance savings and over $60 million in increased buying power for its customers. DealerPolicy Insurance customers who save get an average of $64 per month back into their budget, which is often reinvested into other vehicle protection products offered by the dealer. For that reason, dealers in the DealerPolicy network report an average increase of 34 percent in back-end gross profit.”
DealerPolicy first caught Agency Checklists’ eye back in 2020 when it announced a partnership with J.D Power to create personalized auto insurance quotes for car buyers, and then again in December of 2020 when it acquired Granite State Insurance.
