The Venture Codex

Participated · Equity · Mar 2022

SAVR operates a Sweden-based investment platform that integrates equities, ETFs, and mutual funds for retail investors. The platform offers low currency conversion fees, automated commission classes, and AI-driven analytics to deliver comprehensive market data and sophisticated tools at reduced costs. SAVR recently surpassed 100,000 active users. The company plans to deploy new trading platforms across 17 markets, featuring real-time data feeds, expanded market access, and innovative trading technologies. New funding from Incore Invest is intended to accelerate these product and geographic expansion efforts. SAVR’s stated aim is to democratize investing in the Nordics by improving user experience and lowering costs for retail investors. Savr is a Swedish savings platform that launched its fund platform in November 2019 and offers mutual funds at lower fees by refunding retrocessions (kickbacks) to customers. Since launch it has acquired more than 90,000 customers and refunded over SEK 17.5 million in kickbacks. The company recently rolled out an occupational pensions offering and plans to develop stock trading to become a one-stop investment platform. Savr says it will use the newly raised capital to build out stock trading and further expand the platform. The round was led by Scandinavian media group Schibsted and backed by the Nordic Angels platform, including high-profile angel Ash Pournouri. Savr has now raised over SEK 250 million in venture capital since inception; SEB Corporate Finance Growth acted as financial advisor on the transaction.

Participated · Equity · Mar 2018

SafetyWing builds insurance products aimed at creating a global social safety net for remote companies, workers, and digital nomads. Founded in 2018 by CTO Sarah Sandnes, COO Hans Nyvold Kjellby, and CEO Sondre Rasch, the company is based in San Francisco. Its first product, Nomad Insurance, is a global travel medical insurance tailored to digital nomads working outside their home country. In 2020 SafetyWing launched Remote Health, a single plan designed to cover employees and contractors as a global health insurance solution for remote teams. The company operates with a roughly 100-strong fully remote workforce spread around the world. SafetyWing closed a $35M Series B to scale Remote Health globally and continue improving the product. SafetyWing offers health insurance and related services for remote teams and digital nomads, operating a remote health insurance scheme that covers 175 countries. The company launched in Oslo three years ago with a travel insurance product for digital nomads and raised a €3 million seed round in summer 2019. Now Y Combinator–backed and based in San Francisco, SafetyWing has expanded its target from travelers to startups and businesses with distributed teams. It recently raised $8 million in a Series A led by Creandum with participation from Rocketship and byFounders to fund growth. Upcoming products include a 'remote doctor' tele-health consultation service and a planned 'remote pension' slated for later this year. The founders’ stated vision is to replicate the Norwegian social safety net globally as remote work reshapes talent markets. SafetyWing builds subscription medical travel insurance designed for people who work outside their home country, marketed primarily to digital nomads, freelancers and remote workers. Its first product is a flexible 28-day rolling subscription that can be paused at any time, with cover starting at $37 every four weeks. The company positions itself as creating a "global social safety net" to address gaps in national health insurance for global workers. SafetyWing launched its product last year and is a recent Y Combinator graduate. Founders include CEO Sondre Rasch, CTO Sarah Sandnes and COO Hans Kjellby; the company was founded in 2017 and is out of Norway. To support its mission and build additional products, SafetyWing has recently raised external funding. SafetyWing provides worldwide urgent-care health insurance for travelers and digital nomads through a partnership with insurer Tokio Marine, charging $37 per month with a $30 add-on for coverage inside the U.S. The plan covers hospital visits and prescriptions but excludes preventative treatments and pre-existing conditions, and it does not qualify as coverage under the U.S. Affordable Care Act. The founders — former Norwegians who participated in Y Combinator’s winter accelerator — built the product to serve freelancers and other mobile workers who struggle to obtain affordable international health coverage. The company estimates a target market of roughly 25 million international workers and positions its pricing at about one-third the cost of existing plans for foreign workers. SafetyWing has said it wants to expand beyond health insurance into products like income protection and home-country insurance to create a broader global safety net. Financially, the startup has raised a bit under $500,000 from investors including NordicVest Angels, the Norwegian Investment Authority and undisclosed individual investors.