Meanwhile’s entirely BTC-denominated insurance products, which are authorized and governed by the Bermuda Monetary Authority, make use of artificial intelligence (AI) to provide incredibly effective solutions and bring BTC to life.
Meanwhile, the first and only life insurer entirely denominated in a cryptocurrency, has announced $19 million in financing across two seed rounds, with Gradient Ventures (Google) in the lead position during the second round. The first seed round was co-led by Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, and Lachy Groom, former head of Stripe issuing. The money enables Meanwhile to hire its initial workforce, offer its first product, Bitcoin (BTC)-denominated whole life insurance, and be licensed and regulated as a life insurance firm by the Bermuda Monetary Authority, a major international insurance regulator.
Other significant investors in insurance and cryptocurrency venture capital include Hudson Structured Capital Management, a top re/insurance investor, and Muoro Capital (Santander), the venture arm of MS&AD Insurance Group. Parker Conrad, Dylan Field, Nick Schrock, 6th Man Ventures, Sam Blond of Founders Fund, Lauren Kolodny of Acrew, Marc Bhavaga of General Catalyst, and others are additional angel investors.
“As one of the few innovations in money in the last century, Bitcoin is on track to become a global store of value and functional currency,” said Zac Townsend, co-founder and CEO of Meanwhile. Townsend has spent more than ten years developing projects at the nexus of technology, finance, and public policy. “We believe there is the opportunity to create a full-stack life insurance firm with the goal of serving over a billion people globally when you combine that with artificial intelligence. Starting off, it makes perfect sense for long-term BTC holders to invest in life insurance with that asset as the denominator and make a portion of their BTC holdings active.”
Life insurance is one of the oldest financial products in existence, but Meanwhile modernizes it by utilizing AI and only working with digital assets. With a typical policy needing weeks to be underwritten, traditional insurance companies engage in laborious and time-consuming manual processes and evaluations. The team led by CTO and co-founder Max Gasner is developing a highly effective end-to-end insurance system that minimizes human work and fosters transparency using AI-powered underwriting, claims, and operations.
According to Anna Patterson, Managing Partner of Gradient Ventures, “Meanwhile is sitting at the confluence of the AI and digital assets transformation. The team has the chance to revolutionize how people utilize digital currency and establish new benchmarks for tech-enabled life insurance companies. We’re thrilled to assist Zac and Max in their endeavor.”
According to Jon Soberg, managing partner of MS&AD Ventures, “The insurance sector is frequently seen as inefficient and resistant to new technologies, and frankly, that is true in many cases. Meanwhile flips this idea on its head by using blockchain technology and artificial intelligence to produce a genuinely unique, dynamic life insurance policy. We are honored to take part in this investment round and eagerly anticipate the novel financial solutions that Meanwhile will introduce.”
A few of the main advantages of Meanwhile life insurance policies are:
- A methodical strategy for wealth transfer across generations. By securing today’s tax basis, you can transfer wealth to the future generation without imposing a significant tax burden.
- A guarantee-value policy. Meanwhile can be included in a diverse portfolio of assets for long-term planning and succession since it has guaranteed growth, a guaranteed death benefit, and a guaranteed surrender value.
- You can always access the value of your insurance. Use tax-free, low-interest loans and tax-free partial withdrawals to access the policy’s liquidity.
After its first debut, Meanwhile intends to create a full range of cryptocurrency-denominated financial products, including a private credit fund denominated in BTC, term life insurance, and accidental death coverage, all of which will be payable in BTC.
Source: Businesswire
