Digital Financial Services Company Platform Buckle Raises $60 Million In Series B

By Annie Baker • Oct 9, 2021
  • Buckle — an inclusive tech-enabled financial services company — has disclosed it raised $60 million through a Series B funding. These are the details.

Buckle — an inclusive tech-enabled financial services company — has disclosed it raised $60 million through a Series B funding round led by Volery Capital Partners with participation from Eldridge, Assurant Ventures, and HSCM Bermuda, and other insiders. As part of this deal, Volery Capital Partners will join Buckle’s Board of Directors.

Along with the $60 million in Series B financing, HSCM Bermuda expanded the company’s surplus term loan from $10 million to $20 million to provide additional capital to support the premium growth of Buckle’s Gateway Insurance Company. Buckle closed over $100 million in debt and equity funding since its inception.

The successful raise underscores Buckle’s goal to reimagine financial services for the gig economy. And the capital will help the company scale its pioneering full-stack insurance-as-a-service platform as Buckle continues to spearhead innovative financial products for the rising middle class across the U.S.

Buckle’s core hybrid auto insurance policy for rideshare and delivery drivers uses data from Transportation Network Company (TNC) platforms to underwrite policies. And by using rideshare and delivery data instead of credit scores, Buckle’s core, hybrid auto insurance policy helps close the gap created by conventional insurance policies that leave gig workers underinsured or with higher premiums.

Data Skrive’s patent-pending platform reinvented the economics of sports betting. And over the past year, the company’s client base has grown to include industry-leading sportsbooks, and premiere brands like The Associated Press, Catena Media, ESPN, Sports Illustrated, and USA Today — enabling them to capture market share and drive acquisition costs down while unlocking new revenue opportunities with increased velocity.

While other content marketing and automation technology platforms only enable companies to reduce their content writing costs, Data Skrive automates each aspect of content marketing from researching the topics of interest to optimizing performance for a given goal. And every piece of content is unique and formatted for distribution channels like web, voice, native apps, OTT, search, social, email, or SMS.

KEY QUOTES:

“This new raise helps validate Buckle’s positive momentum across its insurance programs and reinforces our belief in the opportunity for growth the Company faces today. Through our capital efficient, multi-carrier strategy, we’re expanding our digital insurance platform nationwide so that we can offer a range of attractive insurance options to U.S. gig economy workers, many of whom have been considered essential workers throughout the pandemic.”

— Marty Young, co-founder and CEO of Buckle

“We are thrilled to formally partner with Brad Weitz and the Data Skrive team. At Bettor Capital, we are focused on investing in excellent businesses in the online gaming space that supply mission critical, high ROI capabilities to operators and other end market participants. Data Skrive perfectly fits our thesis, and we are excited to help accelerate growth and momentum as the business continues to scale.”

— Jake Kleiner, investment partner at Bettor Capital