Breathe Life raises CA$11.5m to enhance digital distribution

Breathe Life, a SaaS platform provider for the life insurance sector, announced that it has secured CA$11.5m (US$8.7m) in funds for digital innovation.

The total sum consists of $6.5m raised from a Series A round led by Real Ventures and Investissement Québec, and a further $5m from assorted government grants and the National Bank of Canada.

The company offers end-to-end solutions for life insurance carriers, including suites of tools dedicated to the ‘producer experience’ and the ‘direct experience’. Fundamentally, it realises that there are three distinct groups who benefit from a unified insurance platform:

• Carriers: need modern systems and processes to drive distribution.
• Producers: require faster, better and easier methods of growing and nurturing customer relationships, not to mention remote methods of selling policies.
• Consumers: desire easier methods of buying insurance policies, which should also be tailored to meet their exact requirements. 

Adapting insurance for the current era

Breathe Life’s focus on digital transformation stems from its realisation that modern insurance will need to evolve if it is to meet consumer needs in the post-COVID-19 age.

“In our current global context there is an increased need to develop digital services in all sectors, and we’re convinced that this promising Montreal company will play an important role in bringing innovation to the insurance industry,” said Guy LeBlanc, President and CEO of Investissement Québec.

John Stokes, Partner at Real Ventures, concurred with this statement and emphasised that the urgent need for digital transformation was now unignorable:

“Until recently, the insurance industry has approached digital transformation as a multi-year effort. If the last six months have taught the industry anything, it’s that the time to go digital is now.” 

Stokes also highlighted that Breathe Life possessed a “proven track record” in its efforts to deliver sophisticated digital distribution software to insurance carriers in North America.

Going digital: good for carriers and customers

“Everything that has happened this momentous year has raised the stakes for carriers, forcing them to quickly and effectively modernize their operations to meet the pressing financial-security needs of billions of consumers worldwide,” stated Ian Jeffrey, CEO of Breathe Life. 

“Helping consumers engage online, and making it easy for advisors to help them there, is no longer a ‘nice to have,’ but an urgent requirement of the new normal. Breathe Life is empowering carriers to transform now. Using our digital distribution platform, carriers can quickly attract, service, and win new business cost-effectively across channels.”