Toronto Tech Startup Walnut Raises $4.6M to Modernize Insurance Industry | Fintech.ca

A Toronto financial technology firm has announced the close of a funding round.

Building on capital from 2022, the $4.6 million round of investment into Walnut Insurance was led by NAventures, with participation from TELUS Global Ventures, Diagram Ventures, Portage, and Highline Beta.

Walnut is in the business of modernizing the insurance industry with the latest technology.

“The insurance industry has yet to complete its digital transformation, with many insurers and brokers still operating in traditional, non-digital fashions,” comments Adrien Niblock, a cofounder of Walnut.

Niblock sees an opportunity to “leapfrog traditional digitization and support a modern API-enabled embedded distribution strategy.”

By embedding insurance products directly into the products and platforms of enterprise businesses and financial institutions, Walnut removes marketing costs and drives insurance distribution through partner-driven channels.

This strategy not only supports a more sustainable distribution strategy for insurers, Niblock says, but also ensures that consumers receive tailored insurance products when and where they need them.

“Our embedded insurance platform captures distribution, supports insurers and brokers with embedded-first infrastructure, and delivers products to our customers in a compliant manner,” the entrepreneur stated.

The investment will be used to expand Walnut’s embedded insurance technology platform for insurers, brokers, and enterprises, according to a statement from the Canadian firm, as well as expand its engineering team and form new partnerships.

The influx of capital “allows us to expand our technology stack, scale our operations, and bring innovative insurance solutions to both insurers and businesses looking to drive new revenue streams,” Niblock said.

Walnut was founded in 2020.