Oyster Raises $3.6M For Its Modernized Personal Insurance Platform

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Most standard homeowners and renters insurance policies provide coverage for personal belongings. However, this coverage only covers a small percentage of the value of the items with low caps, leaving the insured vulnerable. In order to have the full value of items covered, one needs to purchase additional floaters or personal property endorsements. Most people don’t find this out until it’s too late. Auster is a personal insurance platform that provides embedded insurance options for coverage at the point of sale. Partnering with merchants directly, consumers can purchase coverage against loss, theft, and accidental damage seamlessly. Currently, the platform allows you to secure coverage for bicycles, eBikes, jewelry, collectibles, phones, laptops, and other electronics. For merchants, it takes less than 20 minutes to integrate Oyster’s platform with no technical expertise needed. Oyster is licensed as an agency to provide property and casualty insurance and works with leading insurance companies to underwrite policies. Insuring a $10,000 watch can be as low as $150 per year with global coverage with low or no deductibles.

AlleyWatch caught up with Oyster CEO and Cofounder Vic Yeh to learn more about the business, the company’s strategic plans coming out of launch, recent round of funding, and much, much more…

Kes olid teie investorid ja kui palju kogusite?

We raised a $3.6M financing round. New Stack Ventures juhtis vooru ja temaga ühines Global Founders Capital, Conversion Capital, Cambrian Ventures, SNR VC, Kearny Jackson, Valia Ventures, Interlace Venturesja V1 VC, alongside a group of angels including Garrett Koehn, President of CRC Insurance, Gokul Rajaram, an executive at DoorDash, Eugene Marinelli, Founder of Blend, and Joe Schmidt, Partner at a16z.

Tell us about the product or service that Oyster offers.
Oyster is an insurance technology company that provides a new standard of comprehensive personal insurance coverage through a simplified experience. Our end-to-end platform enables retailers to embed personal insurance at the point of sale to make insurance more accessible for consumers. We offer affordable and transparent insurance for bikes & eBikes, jewelry, collectibles, and electronics, and partner with a growing network of e-commerce and brick-and-mortar merchants for personal insurance at the click of a button.

What inspired the start of Oyster?
In 2021, my cofounders Jon Patel, Nikhil Kansal, and I created Oyster with a vision to revolutionize the P&C insurance industry by redesigning the customer experience through innovative technology and underwriting.

How is Oyster different?

Oyster’s simplified insurance experience is establishing a new standard of comprehensive insurance coverage, solving for the lack of transparency in outdated legacy insurance plans. For consumers, Oyster offers affordable rates tailored for each product line. With Oyster, a $5,000 ring can cost as low as $50 per year to insure, or $4 per month. Oyster provides full coverage from theft, loss, and accidental damage with deductibles as low as $0. In contrast, standard homeowners and renters insurance typically have high deductibles, low single-item limits, and exclusions for category-specific risks.

What market does Oyster target and how big is it?

We’re targeting the P&C industry, which according to McKinsey’s estimates, represents $1.6T in premiums – about one-third of the insurance industry.

Milline on teie ärimudel?
Oyster works with a select group of top-rated carriers to provide tailored, personalized insurance products for customers.

Kuidas valmistute võimalikuks majanduskasvu aeglustumiseks?
We’re focusing on initiatives that will create the most value for our customers and partners and stay deliberate about expenses.

Milline oli rahastamisprotsess?
It’s like introducing a movie script for filming. We had to help investors understand our business from the top to bottom, and most importantly, get them excited about the future we’re building.

Millised on suurimad väljakutsed, millega kapitali kaasates kokku puutusite?
Making sure that investors understand the future we’re trying to build, from the business we have today.

Millised teie ettevõtte tegurid panid teie investorid tšeki kirjutama?
Embedded insurance presents a huge opportunity to change the landscape of P&C insurance. Oyster provides a product-agnostic platform that makes it easier for consumers to get insurance throughout the checkout journey by working with merchants directly.

Millised on verstapostid, mida kavatsete järgmise kuue kuu jooksul saavutada?
We’re still a small team so we plan to use these funds and the coming months to grow the team by hiring.

Millist nõu saate pakkuda New Yorgi ettevõtetele, kellel pole pangas värsket kapitalisüsti?
Be very mindful of your runway and relentlessly prioritize projects that will have a significant impact on the success of your business.

Kuhu teie arvates ettevõte lähiajal praegu läheb?
We’ll continue to expand our platform offerings and grow the partnership network to make insurance more accessible to everyday consumers.

Mis on teie lemmikrestoran linnas?
Piccola Cucina Estiatorio in SoHo.