Vancouver and Toronto-based insurtech startup Apollo Insurance has launched a new subsidiary offering a buy now, pay later (BNPL) facility for insurance premiums called FinShore.
FinShore, a wholly owned subsidiary of Apollo, will offer its BNPL facility exclusively to Apollo’s customers. Last week, FinShore secured $18.5 million CAD in debt financing to support its launch. This financing, which closed May 27, was provided by Fair Capital Partners as lead arranger and agent, and Innovation Federal Credit Union as the lender.
Founded in 2017, Apollo is a digital brokerage platform that allows insurance agents and their customers to purchase their policies. The startup claims to use data and algorithms to quote, collect payment, and issue policies without human intervention.
An Apollo spokesperson explained to BetaKit that while the company has always offered various versions of a monthly pay option, recent demand for BNPL options and affordability pressures on tenants and small businesses led the company to “formalize a scalable offering.”
FinShore is now embedded and offered at the checkout of any policy offered on Apollo’s platform. The new business, which began operating May 1, will allow Canadians to defer payments on their insurance premiums. Apollo’s spokesperson said that FinShore charges users “a nominal interest amount on the premium amount that they borrow against their policy.”
“Establishing FinShore is an innovative step forward for Apollo, and will do much to make the lives of Canadian renters easier,” Apollo founder and CEO Jeff McCann said in a statement. “In this economic climate, particularly with the rise of renting across Canada, consumers are looking for flexibility in their payment options.”
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BNPL facilities, a type of installment loan that allows consumers to purchase a good or service but pay in full, usually in installments at later dates, are already popular in the e-commerce sector, with companies like Klarna, Afterpay, and Affirm being some of the largest players in the space.
But BNPL options have also grown in the insurance sector. In October, Stere Pay launched a BNPL gateway for the insurance industry, and in January 2024, another insurance company, Austin, Texas-based ePayPolicy, launched a premium financing product at the point of online payment.
Since rolling out its platform in 2019, Apollo has grown to serve over 100,000 Canadians. The startup has closed several rounds of financing to date, including $2.5 million in pre-seed and seed funding, $13.5 million in Series A funding, and an undisclosed Series B investment in 2022.
Feature image courtesy Unsplash. Photo by Yuri Krupenin.
