SA国际传媒

Note: This headline and story was updated post-publication to more accurately reflect information provided by the company.

, a Dallas-based digital life insurance platform, has raised $50 million in a Series B round led by Peter Thiel’s聽.

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The company says it actually completed the financing in February, but is only now announcing it in conjunction with the launch of the Bestow Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization created 鈥渢o assist those most in need of financial support during a crisis or disaster.鈥�

Existing backers including and , and also participated in the Series B round, along with new investor Sammons Financial. The financing brings Bestow鈥檚 total raised since its 2016 inception to $67.5 million, according to SA国际传媒 .

, co-founder and CEO of Bestow, told me the company has seen major growth lately. As of the end of first-quarter 2020, the number of policies sold was up 800 percent year-over-year, he said. Revenue growth was “even higher,” but he was not more specific. He declined to say how many people Bestow has insured but noted that it’s placed “billions of dollars in coverage.”

O鈥橞anion founded the company along with . Having started two other insurance-related companies, he became intrigued by the lack of technology adoption in the life insurance space.

鈥淲e鈥檙e trying to digitize something that鈥檚 always been analog,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e became intrigued with the fact that demand existed, yet there was this lack of adoption by millions of consumers.鈥�

Growing quickly

Bestow, unlike most competitors (with the exception of at least聽, which we covered here) does not require people to get a medical exam, according to O鈥橞anion.

鈥淲e鈥檝e developed our own software, and use algorithms and data to turn a four- to six-week long process into one that can be completed online in 10 minutes,鈥� he told SA国际传媒 News.

In addition to its Dallas headquarters, Bestow also has an office in Austin. The company has about 鈥�40-something鈥� employees in each location, according to O鈥橞anion.

Bestow is growing quickly via a variety of distribution channels, selling its policies directly to consumers via paid search and affiliates, for example. It also has integrated with a variety of fintech partners such as Acorns and Chime and is distributing its product through their platforms. Lastly, it鈥檚 got a growing agent advisory channel.

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