Insurance Broker Newfront Hits $2.2 Billion Valuation in Latest Funding Round

(Bloomberg) -- Newfront, the brokerage that merged with ABD Insurance and Financial Services, notched a $2.2 billion valuation in its latest funding round from investors including Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s asset manager. 

The company raised $200 million from investors including the growth equity business within Goldman Sachs Asset Management and B Capital, Newfront said Tuesday in a statement. The San Francisco-based company expects the money to help build its technology platform and expand geographically. 

The funding round marks the latest expansion for Newfront. The brokerage merged with ABD last year in a deal that valued the combined businesses at $1.35 billion. Since then, it has added more than 200 employees, created a new client dashboard and posted a profit in 2021. 

“We see this as huge validation of the merger between Newfront and ABD,” Spike Lipkin, Newfront’s co-founder and chief executive officer, said in an interview. “We’re seeing a huge pull from our clients for a more modern solution and we think that this funding from Goldman Sachs and B Capital really establishes Newfront as the leader of building the modern platform for insurance professionals.”

Newfront counts industries such as life sciences, technology and financial services among its core businesses. That’s leading the company to look to grow in areas such as New York, Boston and Texas, according to Lipkin.

While the industry has become very good at insuring physical assets, Newfront’s Lipkin says there’s a huge demand from clients to understand more-complex risks. Newfront is pushing to build its expertise in industries such as technology, life sciences, financial technology, venture capital and private equity.

“We see modern, full-stack platforms transforming large parts of financial services,” Paul Pate, a vice president at Goldman Sachs Asset Management, said in the statement. “We believe Newfront’s marriage of technology, people, and domain expertise represents the future of the insurance industry.”

Newfront currently has around 800 employees and is expecting to cross the 1,000 mark this year, according to Lipkin. Bloomberg Beta, a venture firm backed by Bloomberg News parent Bloomberg LP, is an investor in Newfront.

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