Insurtech Clark Hits Unicorn Status

An acquisition has given Germany its latest unicorn. Digital insurance broker Clark has taken over Internet information platform Finanzen Group, elevating its own valuation, according to the company itself, to over USD one billion.

“We noticed that the market atmosphere was very good this year, allowing us to grow faster than we planned,” Clark CEO Christopher Oster told business newspaper Handelsblatt. “For that reason, acquisitions were also suddenly on the agenda.”

As part of the deal, Finanzen Group’s previous owner, German insurance giant Allianz acquired a minority share in Clark. Clark currently boasts of more than 450,000 customers in Germany and Austria but hopes to reach a million by the end of 2023. Earlier in 2021, the company took in EUR 69 million from investors in a financing round that included Tencent.

Founding and Investments in Fintech have reached a new record high in 2021. In Germany about 10% of all new foundings in the past three years took place in financial services and technology. “German Fintechs hit the ground running and increasingly enter foreign markets at a quite early stage in their company history.”, says Stefanie Burgdorff, GTAI Senior Manager Trend & Innovation Scouting, and in charge of internationalizing Germany’s Digital Hub Initiative that connects SMEs and corporations with the newest innovators from the science and start-up scene. Clark plans further locations throughout Europe and market leadership. The recent acquisition of Finanzen Group will accelerate this plan.