Protection of stamina cells in specialized biobanks. Or insurance ofdigital identity from hacking or other online crimes. Much more that could come. Wallife is an Italian startup that bases its business on rather particular policies and insurance. Those aimed at new original risks from technological and scientific progress. He just closed a major 12 million euro investment round driven by United Ventures, Italian venture capital manager. A group of Italian and international investors and business angels took part in the round, including Aptafin.
Genetics, biometrics, biohacking: what Wallife protects
But what does Wallife actually ensure? “It protects the individual from the new risks deriving from technological innovation and scientific progress and operates on three specific macro-areas of risk: biometrics, genetics e biohacking – explains Fabio Sbianchi, founder and president of the company, with a long and important past at Octo Telematics, a Italian Tech – concretely, Wallife studies and offers to the market policies that protect the digital identity of the person, protecting it for example fromfraudulent use of face id or touch id smartphone; also designs insurance coverage that protects people fromdistorted use of genetic heritageprotecting the conservation of stem cells in bi banks ”.
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Seventh round of insurtech of Europe in 2022
With this result the company ranks at seventh place in Europe in the so-called insurtech sector by value of the Serie A investment round in 2022, according to the Crunchbase ranking, among the main global databases of financial information on private companies. Founded by Sbianchi e Maria Enrica Angelone in 2020 in Rome, Wallife is raising funds not only on already evident and necessary protection offers but also on the future, i.e. on new and still unknown risks deriving from the way researchers, scientists and industrial and hi-tech giants will shape our lives , on and off the network.
Sbianchi: “73% want to protect sensitive data online”
For the moment we talk about genetic manipulation (i.e. the conservation of biological material and genetic identity), biohacking (the use of technologies within the human body, such as implants and implantable medical devices) e use of digital data (such as fingerprints and facial recognition). In addition to investigating new and emerging risks, the group’s goal – led by CEO Angelone – is to develop innovative insurance products for existing risks, which however, so far they were not covered by traditional insurance. Or at least not completely and effectively enough.
“Wallife was born from the intuition that there are areas still discovered by traditional insurance, areas with which many of the people interface every dayjust think of the use of banking apps or social media, which can be accessed via face id or fingerprint and which may be subject to attacks by cyber criminals – continues Sbianchi – on the other hand, as long as the risk is not perceived and experienced in the first person, individuals do not resort to insurance policies: according to a very recent study that we conducted together with Ipsos, we found that 73% of Italians are inclined to purchase policies to protect themselves from the risks associated with the theft of their sensitive dataa result that strengthens our determination to design innovative protection solutions “.
The first policy to defend digital identity within the year
The capital increase will serve to grow the company on an international scale, will support the development of new insurance products as well as the strengthening of the technological infrastructure. The company also plans to expand its team with the recruitment of various highly specialized profiles: “Wallife operates in Rome, the company’s administrative headquarters, and in Zurich, where our technology hub is located – confirms the president – the funds raised in this second round of financing they will allow us to design new insurance products, strengthen the technological infrastructure and expand our team of professionals both in Italy and abroad. We currently have ten open positions in
both locations that we plan to cover within the next year, while as regards the products, we will launch the first digital identity protection policy by 2022”.
Magrini, United Ventures: “Pioneering vision”
According to Massimiliano Magrinimanaging partner of United Ventures – platform he manages 360 million euros on two early-stage funds (UV1 and UV2) and a growth venture capital fund (UV T-Growth), “scientific and technological progress introduces changes in our lives at an extremely fast pace. In this context, we were struck by Wallife’s pioneering vision of building the first company in the world capable of providing answers on safety and protection from risks still unknown“. UV2’s investment in Wallife is participated by United Ventures II LazioItalian alternative investment fund (AIF) reserved for closed-end securities, co-financed by the Lazio Region through the fund of funds Fare Lazio – Lazio Venture section managed by Lazio Innova SpA, as part of the incentive program for investments in the risk capital of startups and smes through the Por Fesr 2014-2020.
So in the future we will end up no longer needing car insurance – shared and managed by the platform we rent it from – but will we all have one against data theft or biometric information, is this the prospect? “Technological progress runs faster than ever and brings with it new risks that now none of us would be able to perceive as potentially dangerous for individuals – concludes Sbianchi – more than no longer needing car insurance, we could have instead of needing insurance for a new car with new features. What is certain is that our biometric information and our genetic data will increasingly be at the center of our lives, keys to access an ever-increasing number of physical and digital doors. This is why it is so essential to protect them, even at an insurance level ”.