Allianz Direct, a digital-first German subsidiary of the insurance coverage big, has acquired the French residence insurance coverage enterprise of ailing insurtech Luko for €4.3 million (round $4.65 million).
This was each anticipated and surprising: The 2 corporations had been hoping to get the inexperienced gentle on a deal in November. However that didn’t occur, and Luko’s mother or father firm as an alternative went underneath judicial reorganization, a process that meant it wanted to urgently discover a purchaser whose provide would meet the court docket’s necessities.
For some time, many choices had been again on the desk, together with not-so-great ones — till this week.
A cheerful ending of kinds? Not fairly. In any case, Luko ambitioned to turn into a European insurtech unicorn by itself, and possibly it’s now paying the value for it. However there’s additionally reduction for some in understanding that the corporate gained’t be bought for components in spite of everything — and the enterprise unit that can stay on is arguably what it ought to have caught to all alongside.
Yo-yo pricing
Luko was largely identified for providing digital residence insurance coverage in France, with some 230,000 insurance policies bought. Alongside the way in which, issues grew to become extra sophisticated and debt mounted because it expanded in different markets and made acquisitions: German startup Coya and fellow French startup Unkle, each in 2022.