Oyster, an insurance technology company that provides personal insurance through seamless point-of-sale and post-purchase experiences, announced that it has raised a $3.6 million financing round. New Stack Ventures led the round and was joined by Global Founders Capital, Conversion Capital, Cambrian Ventures, SNR VC, Kearny Jackson, Valia Ventures, Interlace Ventures, and V1 VC, alongside a group of angels including Garrett Koehn, President of CRC Insurance, Gokul Rajaram, executive at DoorDash, Eugene Marinelli, Founder of Blend, and Joe Schmidt, Partner at a16z. The Seed round will be used to help Oyster build out its omnichannel insurance platform for consumers and merchants.
Following its founding in 2021 by Blend, Stripe, and Strategy& alumni, the Oyster team is redesigning personal insurance from the ground up, creating an accessible experience that modernizes insurance for everyday consumers. Oyster’s technology leverages proprietary data to handle insurance end-to-end, in one unified platform.
“The property and casualty (P&C) insurance industry has historically been highly fragmented with low customer satisfaction and beyond this, getting insurance is still a tedious, manual process that’s overdue for change. Consumers expect simple, transparent, and digitally-led experiences when interacting with everyday facets of their lives,” said Vic Yeh, CEO and co-founder of Oyster. “We’ve built an all-star innovative team ready to drive innovation in the P&C industry.” According to Research and Markets, the global insurance market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 9.1% to $8.4 trillion by 2026 and McKinsey estimates that the P&C industry represents $1.6 trillion in premiums – about one-third of the insurance industry.
Oyster enters the market with a model that is both consumer- and merchant-friendly. Oyster’s survey of over 9,000 shoppers in the U.S. shows that 45% of consumers are more likely to complete a purchase from a merchant that offers insurance, making Oyster a tool for eBike, jewelry, electronics, and other retailers to increase sales while allowing customers to protect their most precious treasures. Beyond customer attraction, merchants can install Oyster’s no-code integration in under 20 minutes to deliver consumers an instant quote and accurate understanding of their personal insurance at the point-of-sale.
“You can buy a $5,000 ebike or engagement ring online in just a few clicks and get it delivered the next day. Want to get insurance for that purchase? Good luck! It’s an offline process that can take many days and lots of paperwork,” said Rex Salisbury, founding partner, Cambrian Ventures. “Oyster is offering embedded insurance for high growth ecommerce categories to allow consumers to seamlessly insure some of their most important possessions at point of sale in a few minutes. It’s a huge opportunity to move personal insurance into the digital age.”
For consumers, Oyster offers affordable rates tailored for each product line. With Oyster, a $5,000 ring can cost as low as $50 per year to insure, or $4 per month. Oyster provides full coverage from theft, loss, and accidental damage with deductibles as low as $0. In contrast, standard homeowners and renters insurance typically have high deductibles, low single-item limits, and exclusions for category-specific risks. The company works to deliver a win-win scenario for merchants and consumers, understanding what each side of the transaction needs to be satisfied with providing or receiving insurance.
Oyster’s simplified insurance experience will establish a new standard of comprehensive insurance coverage, solving for the lack of transparency in outdated legacy insurance plans.