Unqork, an Insurtech Startup, Raises $22 Million

A Goldman Sachs fund and other investors have provided $22 million in financing for an insurtech startup, Unqork Inc.

Unqork reported today that the investor group also includes Broadridge Financial Solutions, and all of the investors that participated in an earlier round of financing, in early 2018.

The 2018 round of financing brought in $5.2 million from 16 investors, according to a notice Unqork filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in March 2018.

(Related: LIMRA Aims to Surf the Tech Wave)

Unqork is a New York-based company. It has developed a system that life insurers, health insurers, annuity issuers and other financial services organizations can use to create large-scale software applications without having to write anything in C++ or other programming language.

Companies can create applications with the system by choosing from a menu of pre-built forms, and adding product rules from product rule spreadsheets.

Unqork

Unqork was founded in April 2017 and now has about 50 full-time employees.

The company runs its application development system on its own cloud-based servers. Customers pay fees as they go along.

Unqork says on its website that it's not charging any setup, hosting, licensing or professional services fees.

Seventeen financial institutions, including some insurers, are now using the system, Unqork says.

Gary Hoberman, Unqork's chief executive officer, said in a statement that one way the company will use the new cash is to improve its client training capabilities.

Before Hoberman started Unqork, he was the global chief information officer for MetLife Inc.

The Investors

A "seed stage" round of financing provides the cash a startup uses to open its doors.

A "Series A" round is the first round of startup financing that looks significant by venture capital firms' standards.

Unqork is classifying the 2018 round of financing as a seed-stage round, and the new round of financing as a Series A investment round.

The biggest investor in the new round was Goldman Sachs' Principal Strategic Investments fund. The fund "seeks to make long-term strategic investments in fast-growing technology companies," according to Goldman Sachs.

— Read Health Record Exchange Firm Raises $2.6 Million, on ThinkAdvisor.

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