Cachet, a Tallinn-based InsurTech focused on platform worker insurance, has raised €5.5m to expand to gig workers across Europe.
Leading the round was Paris-based Truffle Capital, making this their first investment in the region. The round also included Uniqa Ventures, an expert in the Central Europe region, and previous backer and lead investor Icebreaker.vc. Truffle Capital and Icebreaker.vc representatives will join Cachet’s supervisory board
Cachet provides solutions for the growing platform economy workforce, which the company said will account for 1 out of 5 economically active citizens in the EU by 2025.
The InsurTech said traditional insurers struggle to deal with platform work’s unique needs, such as ride-hailing drivers that work across different platforms like Bolt and Uber. This makes worker protection cumbersome and costly.
Cachet said it solves this issue of a platform worker’s employment-related data being spread across multiple platforms by aggregating the data across platforms.
The company provides motor insurance for ride-hailing drivers as well as regular consumers, and delivery rider insurance that covers personal injury and property damage, accidents and medical expenses.
Following this funding round, Cachet’s new insurance plans will include third-party liability as well as personal health and accident coverage for gig workers.
Cachet will also pioneer a data-led fleet insurance model in the Baltics and the CEE region to improve risk management of commercial car and micro-mobility fleets used to provide app-taxi and delivery services, thereby reducing insurance costs for both workers and fleet managers.
Hedi Mardisoo, co-founder and CEO of Cachet, said, “Even though the platform economy has made companies like Deliveroo and Bolt some of Europe’s fastest-growing companies, it has been accompanied by a heated debate about workers’ rights.
“We have been involved in EU-level discussions to regulate platform work and there’s an impulse to solve problems by reclassifying platform workers as employees. But using old thinking to solve new problems is likely to result in the baby getting thrown out with the bathwater.
“Instead, we think that we can use technology to fix problems partly caused by technology. This way, we can keep the flexibility and freedom of the platform work ecosystem, while putting the gig worker back in the driver’s seat.”
The funding will be used to grow the company’s team, improve its technology and data models, and expand within Europe. Cachet has an insurance distribution license that has been passported to most of the EU countries and currently operates in Estonia, Latvia, and Poland, while also serving customers in the UK, Lithuania, and Finland. In addition to Bolt and Uber, it also works with platforms like Upsteam, Citybee and Cleanify. In Estonia, the company’s first market, Cachet holds 40% of the app-taxi segment’s market share.
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