Balance Re Raises $10m Series A Investment led by Anthemis Group

Balance Re, the life reinsurance start-up specialised in quantitative asset-liability management, today announced it has raised $10m in Series A funding from leading financial services investor Anthemis Group, with participation from Global Brain and the company's existing investors, Roland Berger Industries GmbH and Talabot Finance.

Balance Re offers comprehensive reinsurance solutions to life insurance companies and pension funds to support capital management related to their retirement and saving products. The Series A investment will be used to further develop Balance Re's proprietary asset-liability management technology and to support its fully licensed German reinsurance company based in Cologne.

In Balance Re's launch market, Germany, Solvency II's transitional measures represent on average ca. 150 percentage points of life insurers' solvency capital ratios. Balance Re's technology-first and data-driven approach to reinsurance instead enables its clients to release capital to fund growth, support product repositioning and improve (or regain) a competitive advantage. Thanks to real-time risk management capabilities, Balance Re is the first reinsurer able to offer to its clients easy-to-implement and cost-efficient reinsurance solutions which transfer the challenging interactions of financial and insurance risks.

Balance Re's new shareholders, Anthemis and Global Brain, bring in-depth knowledge of the insurance sector and expertise in technologies dedicated to the financial industry, ideally complementing the experience of Balance Re's initial investors rooted in investment management and corporate strategy.

Lucian Rautu and Michel Gauer, the founders of Balance Re, commented: "We are delighted to welcome Anthemis and Global Brain in the capital of Balance Re and at the Board. Their deep industry knowledge and capacity to take an "outside-of-the-box" approach to venture investments in the insurance space make them the perfect partners to disrupt the life reinsurance market".

Matthew Jones, Managing Director at Anthemis, said "Balance Re's team and their technology reflect the complex interactions between actuarial, financial, accounting and regulatory matters. Balance Re's coverage is designed to help clients reach their strategic goals whilst also keeping the interests of their policyholders in mind – we're excited to see them drive much-needed change in the life reinsurance sector."

Naoki Kamimaeda, Partner at Global Brain, said "We believe that the technology developed by the Balance Re team has far reaching applications beyond life reinsurance and Europe. We are enthusiastic to join them at this important stage of the journey and look forward to helping them realise their vision to improve the management of long-term insurance and pension liabilities globally."

About Balance Re
Balance Re tackles one of the most fascinating problems of life insurance: managing the complex interactions between insurance and financial risks. These problems exist in a multifaceted environment spanning actuarial, financial, accounting, and regulatory matters. To operate at the crossroad of so many fields, Balance Re takes down the cultural silos between insurance, investment, and technology to blend the expertise required to solve its clients' needs for truly comprehensive risk transfer.

About Anthemis
Anthemis cultivates change in financial services by investing in, growing, and sustaining businesses committed to improving the world. We are founded on three guiding principles — authentic collaboration, virtuous cycle outcomes, and diversity and inclusivity and our deep understanding of markets and models, passion for emerging technology and values inspire everything we do. By creating fertile ground for a diverse group of start-ups, investors, entrepreneurs, institutions, academics, and visionaries to converge, we believe we can solve the financial services world's most pressing challenges faster, better and for the benefit of all.

About Global Brain
Global Brain is an early-stage venture capital firm based in Tokyo. It supports start-ups that tackle pressing problems, create innovation, and contribute to the stimulation of the Japanese economy and beyond. Its high-achieving, experienced professionals identify excellent start-ups through multiple global locations in Europe, US and APAC, and provide hands-on growth support. Global Brain's total asset under management is over US$1 billion, making it the largest domestic independent venture capital firm.