Last year, Kayna said it will be creating 13 new jobs by 2027.

Cork insurtech start-up Kayna has raised €1.5m in a seed round to fuel an expansion into the UK and US. Led by pre-seed investor Delta Partners, the round involved existing participants MiddleGame Ventures and Aperture, as well as new investors Leo Capital, Enterprise Ireland and Digital Irish.

The new funding for Kayna follows a pre-seed raise of €1m in 2023. The same year, it won a global competition for early-stage insurtech companies. Last year, the start-up said it would create 13 new jobs by 2027.

Kayna was founded in 2021 by CEO Paul Prendergast and chief technology officer Peter Bermingham, who have previously scaled multiple insurtech businesses together. The company helps business software companies add insurance to their platforms with an AI policy analysis tool that helps weed out insurance gaps and reduce risk exposure.

The ’embedded insurance’ market is forecast to account for around 16pc of the global insurance market, hitting about $1.5trn within a decade, the company said.

With the added funding, Kayna now plans to expand its data-led insurance distribution infrastructure across the UK and US.

“All of the essential elements are now in place, allowing us to scale effectively in our key markets,” said Prendergast.

“With our global brokerage partner, a growing VSaaS (vertical SaaS) client base and skilled Kayna team on board in Ireland and the USA, we’re ready to grow and aim to enable $1bn in commercial insurance transactions across the next five years.”

Maurice Roche, a general partner at Delta Partners, said: “Kayna has achieved each strategic goal to date and is now ready to scale.

“We’re proud of the solid, productive relationship we have built together supporting Kayna as it delivers new revenue streams for platforms, data-led insurance for small businesses and a step-change in insurance product distribution.”

Kanishk Walia, a partner at MiddleGame Ventures, added: “Kayna delivers the missing infrastructure and AI policy analysis that surfaces real insurance coverage gaps for small businesses.

“It successfully enables vertical SaaS platforms to turn day-to-day operational, commercial and financial data into automated, bindable, commercial insurance.”

Don’t miss out on the knowledge you need to succeed. Sign up for the Daily Brief, Silicon Republic’s digest of need-to-know sci-tech news.