French start-up Shift Technology hits unicorn status

Shift Technology, which develops AI for insurance fraud detection, has raised $220m in funding.

The Series D funding round was led by Advent International, through Advent Tech, with participation from Avenir and others. Previous Series C backers Accel, Bessemer Venture Partners, General Catalyst and Iris Capital also joined the round.

The latest funding round brings total investment in Shift to $320m. It gives the company a market valuation of more than $1bn, making it the latest European start-up to hit unicorn status.

‘We have only just scratched the surface of what is possible’
^{– JEREMY JAWISH}

Founded in France in 2014, Shift Technology started out developing fraud detection and claims automation software.

At the beginning of this year, it launched Shift Insurance Suite, which brings its AI-based decision automation technology to other processes such as underwriting, subrogation and compliance.

The company now serves more than 100 customers in 25 different countries and said it has analysed nearly 2bn claims to date.

It has offices in Paris, Boston, Tokyo, London, Madrid, Zurich, Singapore, Toronto, Sao Paulo and Hong Kong.

Shift Technology’s CEO and co-founder, Jeremy Jawish, said the team has worked to provide insurers with the technology solutions they need.

“We have only just scratched the surface of what is possible when AI-based decision automation and optimisation is applied to the critical processes that drive the insurance policy life cycle,” he said.

The company said the latest investment will allow it to expand its presence in key locations including the US, Europe and Asia. The funding will also drive R&D efforts in the creation of new tech for the insurance industry.

Thomas Weisman, a director on Advent’s technology investment team in London, said Shift has made a name for itself in the insurance world since it was first founded.

“Shift’s advanced suite of SaaS products is helping insurers to reshape manual and often time-consuming claims processes in a safer and more automated way. We are proud to be part of this exciting company’s next wave of growth,” he said.

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