UAE start-up Yallacompare raises $8m in new funding round

UAE-based start-up Yallacompare, a comparison site for financial products, has raised $8m from existing VC partners and one new investor in its latest funding round.

The lead investors include STC Ventures, which is managed by Iris Capital; Wamda Capital; and Argo Ventures, the early- and growth- stage investment arm of international insurance carrier, Argo Group.

Yallacompare launched in 2016 as compareit4me.com as an online car insurance comparison portal in the UAE, before expanding its portfolio and rebranding to its new identity in 2017.

The site now provides comparisons for various products including personal loans, health insurance plans, telecoms packages and medical centres among others. It currently accounts for more than 75 per cent of online insurance transactions in the UAE, it said in a statement.

The company also recently announced a partnership with Smart Dubai to bring insurance aggregation to the Dubai Now app, following which it expects to issue more that $50m of policies in 2019.

Yallacompare currently employs over 120 people serving nine markets and the new funds will be used to grow the workforce by up to 50 per cent as the company seeks to bring insurance aggregation to additional regional markets, it said.

In May 2017, the comparison site raised $3.5m in funding from STC Ventures, Wamda Capital, Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority and Saned Partners.

“This latest round of funding represents a ringing endorsement of our direct-to-consumer financial services model,” said Jon Richards, CEO, Yallacompare.