french startup Lucas is acquiring German startup Coya to increase its presence in Europe and obtain an insurance license from the German regulator. While Luko is not disclosing the terms of the deal, the company says it is a 100% equity deal, meaning Coya investors are now Luko investors. These investors include Valar Ventures, Headline and the Roland Berger family office.
Luko started as a home insurance company for homeowners and renters. It’s a big market as you need to prove your home is insured when you rent or buy a home in France. Since then, the company has expanded with new insurance products and services.
Compared to traditional insurers, Luko chose a direct-to-customer model. People apply directly on Luko’s website or on the company’s app.
After that, Luko tries to be as efficient as possible. You can chat with the company directly in the app. When the insurance pays him back, he tries to send the money as quickly as possible. For example, you can receive money instantly in a lydia account.
When it comes to transparency, Luko takes a 30% cut on monthly payments. Everything else is combined to pay compensation. If you have money left over at the end of the year, you can choose to donate your share of the remaining 70% stake.
And the boot has been quite successful. It attracted 220,000 customers – in particular, the customer base doubled between November 2020 and November 2021. Luko also started accepting customers in Spain a few months ago.
Coya, on the other hand, offers several insurance products for the German market. Insurance products include home contents, private liability, dog liability and bicycle insurance.
Following today’s acquisition, Coya will be renamed Luko Insurance AG. Coya’s 80,000 customers are joining Luko’s customer base, which means Luko now has 300,000 customers in total.
Most importantly, Coya obtained an insurance license in Germany. Luko will leverage this license across all its markets thanks to European passport rules. In this way, Luko controls a larger part of the insurance pile.
Next up, Luko has ambitious goals as he plans to build a European leader in the insurtech startup space. The company plans to hire 100 new employees this year alone. By 2023, the startup wants to reach one million customers.