Azos, the Brazilian insurtech specialized in individual life insurance, closed a Series C round of US$23.7 million to accelerate its growth in a market dominated by large insurers. The round was led by Kaszek, who had already led the Series A, and Kevin Efrusy, an American investor who was one of Facebook’s first backers and has been on the company’s board of directors since the Series B. Existing investors such as Prosus, Maya Capital and Propel also participated.
Founded in 2020 by Rafael Cló, Renato Farias and Bernardo Ribeiro, Azos was born from the difficulties in regularizing life insurance after credit cards expire. The company offers 100% digital life, serious illness and disability insurance, with installments starting at US$0.94 per month and coverage of up to US$378 thousand, contractable in less than 24 hours without bureaucracy or additional medical exams.
AI to transform underwriting and claims management
Although the company still had relevant resources from its Series B, it decided to raise capital to accelerate the development of artificial intelligence projects. Today, 30% of policies are approved almost immediately thanks to its automated underwriting system, and the goal is to bring that figure to 50% before the end of the year. In parallel, its AI processes claims, reducing process time from days to hours and develops tools for brokers to increase their sales.
“The world is at an inflection point and we believe that traditional insurers are behind in implementing AI solutions. Now is the best time to scale these products,” said Rafael Cló, CEO and co-founder. With this bet, Azos aims to replicate in life insurance what Nubank achieved in banking: transform an industry dominated by incumbents through technology and user experience.
A concentrated market with room to grow
The individual life insurance market in Brazil moved around US$4.75 billion last year, with Bradesco and Prudential accounting for 64% of the total. Azos already captures just over 1% of that market with 100,000 active policies, 11,000 associated brokers and an insured capital of approximately US$20.9 billion.
The company operates under the MGA (Managing General Agent) model, in alliance with the insurer Excelsior, which assumes the risks while Azos is in charge of structuring products, defining pricing and managing the customer experience. The biggest challenge that Cló recognizes is commercial expansion. “We need to add more distribution partners and strengthen brand recognition so that more Brazilians trust us.”
