Middle East-focused financial products comparison website compareit4me.com has secured $3.5 million in its latest round of funding from existing investors including Wamda Capital, STC Ventures, Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority and Saned Partners.
The fundraising is part of a larger Series B round of funding to be concluded in a few months.
The major part of the investment came from existing investors STC Ventures, which is managed by Paris-based fund management firm Iris Capital and Wamda Capital, which first backed compareit4me in the startup’s Series A in 2015.
The firm also received additional investment from Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority and Saned Partners.
To date, compareit4me has raised over $9 million.
compareit4me.com allows users to compare finance and banking products, including home and car loans, from around the Middle East.
Last year, it launched its insurance platform which allows users to view, compare and buy car, home, travel or life insurance online.
Since launching in March 2016, compareit4me’s insurance platform has grown to sell $1.5 million worth of insurance policies per month.
The company is expecting this number to reach $5 million per month by the end of 2017.
With compareit4me slated to enter Saudi Arabia with its insurance comparison platform, there is an enormous opportunity for its business, said Khaled Talhouni, managing partner at Wamda Capital.
With the launch of its car insurance comparison portal, compareit4me has managed the addition of a transactional business model with aplomb, Talhouni said.
As of April 2017, compareit4me’s year-on-year growth in insurance policy sales reached 600%, making it the largest insurance aggregator in the UAE, it claims.
compareit4me has also seen GMV (the total value of policies sold) growth of over 400%.
In September 2016, compareit4me raised $2.4 million in a bridge funding round.
More than half of funding came from Wamda Capital, STC Ventures, and Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority.
The funding came less than a year after they invested $3 million in a Series A funding round in the firm.