Financial comparison website, compareit4me.com has announced that it has received US$2.4 million in investment through its latest round of bridge funding.
The sum more than doubled the $1 million that the company had targeted, taking the total amount that it has raised to date to almost $6 million.
The funds will be used to build out compareit4me’s recently launched and fast-growing insurance business in the UAE, and will also help fund its aggressive expansion plans across the MENA region.
compareit4me’s insurance business has led to millions of dirhams in savings for UAE consumers, the company said in a statement. With a panel of 10 insurance providers, it has become the region’s largest insurance comparison platform.
More than half of the $2.4 million secured came from existing investors Wamda Capital, STC Ventures and Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority. This followed less than a year after they had invested $3 million in the company’s Series A funding.
Commenting on the investment, Mr Khaled Talhouni, Managing Partner at Wamda Capital, said: “We remain impressed with the performance of compareit4me, and the business’ ability to grow in the UAE and across the region. This follow-on investment is a testament to our belief in the founders and the future potential of the company.”
Mr Angus Paterson, Partner at STC Ventures, added: “We’re very excited to back compareit4me again in its ongoing expansion, given the business’ impressive growth trajectory and, in particular, the huge transactional potential offered by its recently launched insurance platform.”
The growth of the company has also attracted a group of new, strategic investors. SANED, an independently managed venture capital fund that nurtures early-stage companies in the MENA region, was joined by an influential collection of private investors. These include executives from leading regional and international e-commerce and financial comparison businesses, along with a senior executive at one of the world’s leading hedge fund and venture capital firms. In addition to this, Mulverhill Associates, an investment organisation that originally backed comparite4me as an angel investor, contributed to the latest round of funding.
Mr Jon Richards, CEO of compareit4me.com, said: “Given the business is transactional, it creates the same opportunities and challenges as other e-commerce sites. These are very exciting times for the business. 1H2016 saw revenues grow approximately 2.5 times, and since our insurance business launched in March, we have already sold close to $2 million in policies – and it’s growing at 80% per month.”
In response to this growth, compareit4me has built a state-of-the-art call centre to service the rapid expansion of the business.