Peter Thiel’s VC company is doubling down on a German insurance startup

LONDON — Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures has led a $30 million funding round into Germany insurance technology startup Coya.

It’s Valar’s second investment in the company. Valar, Thiel’s early-stage venture capital company, took part in a $10 million funding round for Coya last August. e.ventures, La Famiglia, and yabeo also took part in the latest round.

Coya, founded in 2016, is planning to build a digital insurance product pitched at millennials and the latest cash injection will help support the cost of getting regulated by BaFin, Germany’s finance regulator. It hopes to launch later this summer.

Coya’s founders said in a joint statement: “The funding provides the fuel to develop digitally focused insurance solutions that are fairer, faster, and future ready.”

Thiel, who is best known for cofounding PayPal and being an early investor in Facebook, has been an active investor in European fintech, or financial technology, over recent years.

The billionaire was an early investor in UK money transfer business TransferWise and UK insurtech startup Brolly, as well as backing German fintech startups N26 and Deposit Solutions.

James Fitzgerald, a partner at Valar Ventures, said in a statement: “We see huge potential in Coya. Building an insurance company for the current century requires the right balance of insurance and technology expertise, something that others — both incumbents and many insuretech startups — have not been able to achieve.

“Coya’s determination to build a fully licensed and integrated insurance offering from the ground up, rather than rely on third parties, sets them apart in the space.”

Coya was founded by two veterans of hot German lending startup Kreditech and Dr. Peter Hagen, former CEO of Vienna Insurance Group (VIG). It currently has 55 employees in Berlin.