Core Highlights:
- EBRD offers a lot assistance for an innovative Digitalized-powered insurance Firm Hellas Direct an insurance firm in Greece.
- Obligatory Adaptable Debt Facility of up to €10 million to Hellas Direct was offered.
- These funds will assist the expansion and overall power the firm’s solvency capital plans.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is offering an obligatory adaptable debt capability of €10 million to Hellas Direct Insurance Limited, a faithful mounting, tech-driven insurance firm, to provision its evolution and offer the firm with solvency capital. The debt ability is part of a higher financing round of €32 million.
Prevailing shareholders of Hellas Direct, Portag3, a Canadian venture capital investor specialising in FinTech prospects, and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, are also capitalizing in this fundraising round alongside the EBRD.
Hellas Direct is a digitally empowered insurer recognized in 2011. It specializes in private motor vehicle insurance and housing property insurance in Greece and Cyprus.
The funds will provision Hellas Direct’s evolution, empowering the firm to scale up its operations, upsurge its market share and endure offering innovative insurance merchandize and digitalizing the motor and home insurance value chain in Greece, where the insurance diffusion ratio is one of the lowest in Europe.
It will also offer the business with the essential solvency to fund insurance premia it guesses to underwrite. The EBRD’s participation originates in the form of a mandatory convertible debt instrument, which is anticipated to qualify as unrestricted Tier 1 capital under the European Union’s Solvency II Directive, which is a novel funding instrument tailored for this investment.
Andreea Moraru, EBRD Head of Greece and Cyprus, stated: “We are delighted to support Hellas Direct, a technology-driven insurance company offering innovative products and digitalising the insurance value chain in Greece. Accelerating digital transition, unleashing the power of technology to bring changes for the better, is among the top priorities for the EBRD. We are very proud to support the growth of an insurance market player with a unique, digital business model well-positioned in the post-Covid-19 world in scaling up its operations. We are confident that EBRD funding, know-how and strong presence on the Greek market will help Hellas Direct to continue improving its cutting-edge service offerings and increase its market share.”
“We are really proud to welcome the EBRD into our group of investors at Hellas Direct. EBRD’s funding, support and know-how will enable us to accelerate some of our longer-term strategic goals, as we expand to other blind spot markets in Emerging Europe, in order to replicate the multi-product, multi-channel approach we have successfully deployed in Greece. We are super excited and can’t wait for the following months”, stated Alexis Pantazis, Executive Director of Hellas Direct.
Emilios Markou, Executive Director of Hellas Direct, stated: “Our aspiration at Hellas Direct is to become the dominant player in the wider region’s mobility ecosystem. And we are really excited to be teaming up with one of the world’s leading investors, the EBRD, who will support us in our effort to pursue our strategic goals. This is a great opportunity for us to further optimise the service we offer to the consumer, by expanding our activity to multiple sectors.”
The EBRD in progress operating in Greece on a provisional basis in 2015 to caring the nation’s economic recovery. To date, the Bank has capitalized more than €4.6 billion in over 75 projects in the corporate, financial, energy and infrastructure sectors of the Greek economy.
