Allianz Direct, digital first The insurance giant’s German subsidiary has acquired the French home insurance business of ailing insurtech Luko for €4.3 million (about $4.65 million).
This was both expected and unexpected: The companies had hoped to get approval for the deal in November. That didn’t happen, and Luco’s parent company instead underwent judicial reorganization, a process that meant it urgently needed to find a buyer whose bid met the court’s requirements.
For a while, a lot of options were back on the table, including not-so-good ones — until this week.
Some kind of happy ending? Not completely. After all, Luko had ambitions to become a European insurtech unicorn, and perhaps it’s now paying the price. But it’s also a relief to some, knowing that the company won’t be sold for parts after all – and that the business unit that survives is arguably the one it should have been hanging on to.
Yo-Yo Pricing
Luko is best known in France for providing digital home insurance, with around 230,000 policies sold. Along the way, things got more complicated, and as it expanded and acquired in other markets: German startup Coya and French startup Unkle both made acquisitions in 2022, things got more complicated, and so did the debt. Increase.
