HSCM invests in payments insurtech

Hudson Structured Capital Management (HSCM) and Nathaniel Manning, co-founder of Bermuda-based Kettle Insurance, are among the investors in the $30 million series A funding by insurtech startup Ascend. HSCM also facilitated a $250 million lending commitment. Index Ventures led the Series A funding.

Ascend provides a “buy-now-pay-later” automated insurance payments solution that combines financing, collections and payables.

“We’ve seen an enormous surge in demand over the last six months since we launched,” said Praveen Chekuri, co-CEO and co-founder of Ascend.

“Our payment software greatly reduces purchase friction for customers buying insurance while simultaneously reducing or eliminating traditionally labour-intensive operational processes for brokerages, MGAs, and carriers.

“With this new funding, we can meet that demand and help more customers use Ascend’s embedded payments and buy-now-pay-later offering. We’re excited to have the backing and financial support of these investors to help insurance distributors and carriers sell their products more effectively and build out the future of the insurance infrastructure.”