Ornikar, the driving school marketplace, announced its Series C round of $120M dedicated to developing the platform and further expanding into the car insurance sector. This is a major milestone for the Paris-based startup, demonstrating the potential of its marketplace to bring transparency into the driving school market and now to car insurance.
Let’s take a closer look at what this funding means for Ornikar.
Overview of Ornikar
Ornikar is a driving school marketplace that offers a full range of services, including driver’s education and car insurance. Founded in France in 2016, Ornikar currently operates marketplaces that serve around 470,000 drivers in France and Spain.
In January 2021, the company announced that it had secured a new $120 million funding round led by Draper Esprit, a venture capital firm with investments in other successful tech startups such as Farfetch, Carwow, Asana, and Deliveroo. The investment will strengthen Ornikar’s presence across Europe and accelerate the launch of its current car insurance product offering.
With this new funding round and its expanded offerings, Ornikar is set to become one of the leading players in the European driving school marketplace space. The company’s goal is to create an end-to-end solution for drivers looking for an easy way to manage their driver’s licenses, insurance, and other driving-related services. Additionally, Ornikar wants to expand its services by providing e-learning platforms for governments and traditional driving schools.
Overview of Ornikar’s driving school marketplace
Ornikar is one of the first startups in Europe to offer an entire ecosystem for anyone interested in driving, from aspiring drivers to certified professionals. Founded in 2016 by ex-employees of electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla and Le Taxi bleu, Ornikar provides an online marketplace that connects learners with driving schools.
Aiming to provide a seamless learning experience, the marketplace includes training options such as online theory courses, practice tests, and road safety classes while allowing users to compare driving schools and instructors according to their profiles. The company also offers its driver certification program called “Driving Course,” which helps individuals become certified drivers as quickly as possible in three steps (Learn – Practice – Validate).
In March 2020, Ornikar raised $120M in a funding round led by General Motors Ventures validating its potential as one of Europe’s leading platforms for connected vehicles and self-driving technologies. With this injection of capital, the French startup is now looking to expand its value proposition beyond the core driving school business into car insurance for customers purchasing or leasing their vehicles from selected partners.
Ornikar Raises $120M
Paris-based tech startup Ornikar has raised $120 million in a funding round led by index Ventures as the driving school marketplace gears up to launch its car insurance product.
The round brings the total money raised by the company to date up to $170 million. Ornikar plans to use the new funds to continue its expansion and accelerate its pace of product innovation.
Overview of the funding round
Ornikar, a car insurance marketplace that caters to driving schools, recently announced the successful completion of a €102 million (approximately US $120 million) funding round. The round was co-led by General Atlantic and Temasek and will be used to finance Ornikar’s global expansion.
At its core, Ornikar is a digital marketplace for car insurance meant for driving school customers – removing the confusion often associated with buying insurance in this sector. As the platform expands, it expects to reach more than 25 million customers and revolutionize the car insurance buying experience across Europe.
This innovative business model has attracted some of the world’s leading investors like Accel Partners, MAIF Avenir, and Bpifrance Large Venture in France; PeakBridge Ventures in Belgium; Stirling Square Capital Partners in Spain; Inkef Capital in the Netherlands; Catalyst Investment Group and Milestone Ventures as well as existing investors Extendin Ventures, Heartcore Capital and Partech.
This significant funding provides Ornikar with a competitive edge within its sector while highlighting how much potential the thriving business holds. With their global expansion plans now firmly underway, it’s likely that we’ll see far more of What Ornikar has to offer soon — both inside Europe and beyond.
Investors involved in the round
Ornikar, a European driving school marketplace that offers learners driver licenses and accompanying car insurance, has raised $120M in a Series D funding round. The round was led by Index Ventures and Valar Ventures, with additional participation from existing investors Balderton Capital and Mouro Capital.
According to Ornikar, the new funds will be used to speed up its growth trajectory in countries already served, such as France, Spain, and Italy, and ensure successful entry into new markets, including Germany. This is the fourth major fundraising event since the startup’s founding in 2015. Since then, Ornikar has raised $187 million in total.
Moreover, the firm plans to double its team size of 350 people this year to continue developing an AI-based platform that will offer future drivers an end-to-end experience when learning how to drive and obtaining their license via driver education apps. It will also help them find reliable instructors while easing administrative burdens such as obtaining car insurance providers specific for young drivers at advantageous prices, among other things, such as training concepts geared towards smart driving data. By leveraging automation technologies across its various services for driving schools and instructors, it can provide more efficient services for learners wanting to get their driver’s licenses or lower their car insurance premiums.
With the additional capital from investors involved in this latest round, Ornikar is confident that it can further grow its presence by onboarding new users across Europe while expanding the variety of products in the market for those users seeking more efficient services catered specifically towards learner drivers who are insuring themselves for the first time or looking to lower premiums on existing policies.
Ornikar’s Marketplace Goes Up a Gear
Ornikar, a startup transforming the way people learn to drive, announced it had raised a €100 million ($120 million) Series D round of funding as it expands its offering to include car insurance. This funding round brings the total raised by the company to €160 million ($193 million).
With this latest funding round, the company is gearing up to further its mission of becoming the world’s largest driving school marketplace. Let’s look at how this new offering will benefit customers and the company.
Ornikar raises $120M as its driving school marketplace goes up a gear with car insurance
Ornikar, the Europe-based driving school Marketplace, announced it had secured $120 million in its latest round of funding. The funds will be used for further expansion into car insurance by leveraging its digital platform and network of driving school partners.
This latest investment brings Ornikar’s total to nearly $225 million since it got started four years ago. Founded in 2016 by former venture capitalists Yann Rakoto, Vincent Roland de Menthon, and Nicolas Lebret, Ornikar has become one of the leading marketplaces for driving lessons and other services related to obtaining a driver’s license. It currently operates in France, Belgium, and Luxembourg.
With this new round of funding, Ornikar plans to use its expanses in technology to bring car insurance products to its growing network of partners throughout Europe. By giving drivers access to insurance coverage through the Ornikar app they can get personalized product recommendations based on their individual needs and budget. This will enable them to save money and time on cumbersome paperwork around obtaining driver’s licenses or renewing existing ones due to any incidents that occur with their current insurance company.
This new funding also allows Ornikar access towards increasing investments across multiple countries, including Germany, Spain, and Italy, where it plans on launching operations over the next 12 months as part of its three-phase launch plan that is set over the next two years. The Ornikar team believes this will help fuel accelerated growth while maintaining the market leadership positions it already holds in France, where they are already present with a significant share of the French car insurance market, estimated at close to a thousand customers.
Benefits of the move
Ornikar’s recent investment of $120M is fuelling the growth of its online marketplace for driving schools and instruction across Europe. The company has announced its expansion into car insurance, offering products in France, with plans for further European rollouts soon.
The move is a strategic one for Ornikar, as it seeks to become a more holistic service provider across all elements of driver education in Europe. The new insurance product will offer a range of benefits not available to customers before now.
Through careful partnerships with leading industry partners, Ornikar will be able to provide low-cost insurance coverage tailored specifically to the needs of individual users. In addition, customers can benefit from discounts, easy claim processing, and personalized advice from trained experts online or over the phone.
Furthermore, by providing policyholders with detailed data about their driving behavior continuously, Ornikar seeks to encourage safe driving habits. Their program rewards drivers with lower costs depending on how safe they drive and how long they choose to stay on the program. This innovative approach could also have wider societal benefits, such as reduced road accidents and increased safety generally associated with responsible driving standards.
On that note, Ornikar’s move into car insurance provides yet another platform for better educating new drivers on the risks associated with driving while also providing through its marketplace an ecosystem of personalized services catered towards the best interests of each learner and driver.
Conclusion
Ornikar’s marketplace has taken a stride towards becoming a leading player in the car insurance business with their recent $120M funding round. The funds will support the expansion of Ornikar’s online driving school platform and the launch of their new car insurance product. These developments will allow them to provide better services to their customers and help them stay ahead of the competition.
This article will discuss the potential implications of Ornikar’s venture into the car insurance market.
Summary of the article
This article explains how Ornikar, Europe’s leading marketplace for driving school services and related products, has successfully closed a $120M funding round. The investments will be channeled towards further development of their core product offering and expansion into the car insurance market. Ornikar is a French startup founded in 2015 by Emmanuel DELAUNE, Gordon SMITH, and Antoine LEVY-LAMBERT.
The company has recently grown its user base to 1 million and is now ranked among the top 5 on-demand auto services in Europe. The additional funds will be used to strengthen their position within the market, with an emphasis on developing the most efficient digital ecosystem to satisfy all needs regarding driver’s license acquisition, practice driving schools, and car insurance. Expansion into new markets such as Germany and Italy is also planned for the near future.
The success of this latest funding round confirms Ornikar’s potential for disruption within an unexplored market as well as its continuous efforts to innovate in terms of product offering, operations, and customer service improvement. With these investments, Ornikar takes its place amongst high-value European startups making waves across the continent through innovative solutions addressing existing consumer needs.
Implications of the move
The Ornikar’s successful funding round marks a major milestone for the company. It is seen as a big vote of confidence in its ability to disrupt the traditional car insurance market. The extra capital, coupled with the fact that Ornikar now offers both driving school classes and car insurance policies, truly sets this company apart from its competitors.
Not only will this enable Ornikar to improve its existing services and reach new markets, but it also implies wider implications for other industries. For example, as Ornikar’s platform increases in popularity and reach, it could influence how customers shop for car insurance. This could cause some significant disruption to the established players in this market, forcing them to rethink their strategies to stay competitive.
It will be interesting to see how other companies respond in a fiercely competitive marketplace such as car insurance and what strategies they employ to ensure they don’t get left behind by companies like Ornikar.
