Laka (www.laka.co) winner of the ‘Best Cycle Insurance Provider’ Award four years in a row has secured additional funding from Porsche Ventures, the venture capital unit of Porsche AG. This brings its Series A, led by Autotech Ventures and followed by Ponooc, Dutch sustainable mobility investor with close ties to the world’s largest bike seller Pon, and ABN AMRO, to $13.5m. Laka will use the new capital and network opportunities to facilitate its European expansion.
With no major European player for cycling and e-mobility insurance, Laka is uniquely placed and first-to-market with an insurance model that has customer interest built-in to the core. Laka will expand its product offering to e-scooters, e-mopeds and, eventually, e-cars to better serve Europe-wide partnerships including manufacturers, retailers and leasing businesses.
About the investment, Patrick Huke, Head of Porsche Ventures, Europe & Israel said
“The increasing digitization and variety of sustainable mobility offers leads to the need for an innovative and customer-centric offer in the field of digital insurance. With the investment in Laka, we are pleased to support a strong team that is addressing the global insurance market with a unique, highly adaptable and digital business model, which focuses above all on the customer experience.”
Laka will be exploring opportunities with the Porsche Ventures portfolio to build the backbone to support the e-mobility segment. Initially partnering with German cycling brand Cyklaer (www.cyklaer.de) to offer new and existing customers built in digital insurance products. Cyklaer will be joining Laka’s partners, which include the world’s largest sports retailer, Decathlon, iconic cycling brands Raleigh and Le Col, as well as Santander Consumer Finance and Monzo. The partnerships enable the brands to provide end to end digital experiences by immediately protecting their customers from theft and damage at the point of sale.
Tobias Taupitz, CEO and co-founder of Laka says “2021 truly depicted an inflection point for Laka as we moved from a pure direct-to-consumer play towards retail and commercial partnerships.
e-mobility is redefining transport globally, and Laka has set out to build the backbone to support the e-mobility segment at a time when “Net Zero Emissions” has rightly become front of mind for consumers, businesses and government policy. To support this shift towards a greener future, we have a bold vision to become the world’s largest e-mobility insurance partner.”
Already insuring many of the UK’s leading last mile delivery companies, such as Zapp and Urbit. Laka is also expanding to cover commercial fleets Europe-wide, where companies who are shifting their fleet to greener transport and e-mobility are underserved by traditional insurers.
Porsche Ventures joined the existing investor list including Autotech Ventures, Ponooc, ABN AMRO Ventures, Creandum, LocalGlobe, 1818 Ventures and Elkstone Partners. Notably, confidence in Laka was shown by global cycling industry leaders, with angel investment coming from Zwift CEO and cofounder, Eric Min in January 2022.
