OneDegree, a Hong Kong-based insurer of digital belongings, has been approached by funding banks about going public by a blank-check firm, its co-founder mentioned.
The agency, one in every of 4 with a so-called digital insurer license in Hong Kong, expects to hold out a funding spherical in coming months to finance growth, Alvin Kwock mentioned in an interview with out giving specifics. He mentioned no determination has been made on whether or not to merge with a particular objective acquisition firm, or SPAC. OneDegree raised $28 million in August.
“Within the final 4 years, we now have had fundraising just about yearly,” Kwock mentioned. “With the kind of giant market that we’re seeing, I do suppose that there’s a lot of curiosity coming from the funding neighborhood.”
The corporate, which started promoting safety on digital belongings final 12 months, on Monday introduced a partnership with German reinsurance agency Munich Re to supply protection of cyber-security dangers for buying and selling platforms, custodians, asset managers and know-how suppliers. It is usually working with pilot prospects to insure “offline” dangers, protecting bodily merchandise and real-life companies which can be linked to a digital belongings like nonfungible tokens.
Hovering crypto hacks and thefts means insuring such belongings is a booming enterprise. The worth of crypto thefts jumped six occasions last year to $3.2 billion, in response to blockchain researcher Chainalysis. Greater than two-thirds of that was looted from decentralized finance platforms, the place counterparties work together immediately through so-called good contracts.
OneDegree, based in 2016, mentioned gross sales jumped 30% within the first quarter from the earlier three months, and that its variety of prospects has doubled to 200,000 since final summer season. It’s now searching for to compete with conventional insurers in areas together with pets, well being and actual property, Kwock mentioned.
{Photograph}: View of buildings from Victoria Peak in Hong Kong, China, on Thursday, Jan. 27, 2022. Photograph credit score: Paul Yeung/Bloomberg.
Copyright 2022 Bloomberg.
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