The UK unicorn Monzo has bagged a new partnership with insurer AXA Partners to offer the digital-only bank’s customer better travel insurance options.
The team-up means anyone who signs up to a Monzo Plus account will be presented with the option to get travel insurance underwritten by AXA partners. The policy will cover medical bills, lost valuables, trip cancellation costs and winter sports.
Talking about the new deal, Jonas Templestein, co-founder of Monzo, said that the idea to offer travel insurance options came about after the challenger bank asked its customers what features they wanted. Travel insurance was at the top of their most desired ad-ons.
Speaking with Verdict, he added: “And that’s just the start. We are hoping to further build-out our offering very soon, with users being able to pick and choose custom products, including contents and mobile phone insurance.”
On AXA Partners’ part, the partnership will enable the insurer to tap into Monzo’s client base and to give them more value for their money.
The news comes barely a month after Monzo acquired a valuation of over £2bn, making the challenger bank a unicorn twice over. The valuation came after the scaleup raised a £113m Series F funding round in June. Y Combinator, the startup accelerator that was one of the early investors of Airbnb, as well as nine other investors.
Monzo was founded in 2015. The bank made the headlines in 2016 after raising £1m within 96 seconds on Crowdcube, the crowdfunding platform. Since then it has become one of the most well-known new batch of challenger banks in the world.
Copyright © FinTech Global 2019
