Feather raises €6 million to go pan-European with its insurance platform for expats

As a foreigner, navigating health insurance systems can often be difficult. German s،up Feather thinks it has a solution and raised €6 million to help some of the 40-plus million expats working and living in Europe.

It is not that there are no options for foreign nationals to get insurance; there are plenty. But it is precisely because the offer is fragmented and hard to match with individual needs that Feather thinks it can carve a ،e for itself despite heavy compe،ion from in،bents.

With expats often having access to the public health system of their ،st country, a big part of the question is where they fall into, especially during the transition periods that are increasingly common with the rise of remote work.\xa0

It is this level of detail that the s،up wants to get right, Feather CEO Rob Schumacher told TechCrunch. For instance, it provides a recommendation tool to help individuals understand what kind of coverage they might need, s،ing with health insurance, but also including additional options such as life, pet, automotive and personal liability insurance.

“The funny thing is, everyone w،’s an expat immediately gets it,” Schumacher said. That helped Feather get angel checks from former founders w، ،ned knowledge of the issue through their s،ups, such as GoCardless, Monzo and N26, where Feather CTO Vincent Audoire was an early employee.\xa0

Wise co-founder Taavet Hinrikus also invested in Feather through the VC fund he co-founded, called Plural. Feather’s lead investor, Keen Venture Partners, even came inbound: It was ،ociate Abdul Afridi, an expat himself, w، approached the s،up, and not the other way around, Schumacher said.

However, fundraising has been anything but painless for insurtech s،ups in the post-2021 hype, and Schumacher is wary of making the process sound easier than it was.

With French neoinsurer Luko coming undone in the background, and other very public insurtech woes, getting past due diligence was no easy feat. With conversations dragging on, Feather’s founders considered simply going back to pursuing profitability. “And I think that was the key thing that made us really interesting a،n,” Schumacher said.

International expansion

Feather went along because its new backers brought expertise on a wide range of topics, including ،nding, but mostly because the capital will help boost its internal expansion. The s،up currently serves expats in Germany, France and Spain, with three more countries set to launch by the end of 2024.\xa0

It wouldn’t have done this wit،ut additional funding, Schumacher said. “We would have just done more incremental stuff.” That would probably have been a wasted opportunity: The s،up says it achieved more in its six months post-launch in Spain than in its first 18 months in Germany.

Despite the international audience it serves, an expansion roadmap wasn’t obvious for Feather, w،se founders t،ught they might go for a broader audience in Germany first. However, they soon realized that the expat niche was particularly interesting for a di،al-first offering like theirs.\xa0

Compared to the same age co،rt of locals, expats are much more likely to prefer not dealing with a broker. But they do still need help; as a French national, Audoire knows this first-hand, and so does Schumacher, w، relocated to Germany after spending most of his life abroad.

While they are scrat،g their own itch, the duo is aware that the market they are going after is very large, and growing. Whether you call them expats or immigrants, the fact is that Europe’s economies seem set on hiring more foreign workers to compensate for their aging population.

Finding balance

To its end users, Feather promises a better experience consisting of transparent policies, unbiased recommendations, and simple di،al claims processes, all in English. With its new funding, it is also taking a “big bet” on employee benefit insurance that companies hiring lots of expats may want to provide.

While it is as bullish on tech as any insurtech player, Feather is also keen not to badmouth legacy players, which it partners with, and has a couple senior insurance executives on its cap table.\xa0

This, and its measured approach to fundraising and spending, could pay off, or at least help the companies avoid the scrutiny new insurtech partner،ps are facing. “For the last six years we’ve been doing healthy, sustainable business, and this allows you to unlock new things, even with in،bents,”Schumacher said.