BOLTTECH

bolttech is not a classic garage story. It was built on purpose in 2020 by Pacific Century Group, the investment firm run by Hong Kong billionaire Richard Li.

Rather than start from zero, they assembled it. The company folded in an existing US insurance-exchange business called Bolt, founded by Eric Gewirtzman, and added Asian insurtech operations.

Then in 2021 it bought Europe's i-surance to reach new markets. The whole thing was designed around three pieces from day one.

An insurance exchange, a digital brokerage, and device protection.

Think of bolttech as a matchmaker for insurance. On one side are insurance companies with products to sell.

On the other are businesses with customers, like phone carriers, retailers, banks, and online shops. bolttech's technology lets those businesses offer insurance right inside their own checkout or app.

You buy a phone, and coverage for it pops up in the same flow. bolttech takes a cut of the premiums that move across its exchange, plus fees from device protection and brokerage.

The partner businesses and the end customers are the ones paying.

The flagship is the bolttech exchange, the marketplace connecting insurers, distributors, and buyers. Around it sit embedded insurance and device protection, the coverage that appears when you buy a phone or gadget.

There is also a digital brokerage arm plus warranty and protection products. The common thread is insurance sold inside somebody else's checkout, not through an agent on the phone.

The strategy was scale first, and scale fast. bolttech spread into more than 30 markets across Asia, the US, Europe, and Africa in just a few years.

A lot of that growth came from buying companies rather than building from scratch, like the i-surance deal in Europe. It also cozied up to giant insurers who doubled as investors.

Tokio Marine, MetLife, and Generali all put money in and deepened its reach. Richard Li's ecosystem gave it a running start most startups never get.

The hard part is turning all that scale into profit. Running an insurance exchange in 30-plus countries means 30-plus sets of regulators, each with their own rules.

Embedded insurance is also getting crowded fast. bolttech leans heavily on partner businesses to reach customers, so it does not fully control its own demand.

And it is tightly tied to Richard Li's world, which is a strength and a dependency at the same time. Growing huge is the easy part.

Making it pay is the open question.

bolttech's cap table reads like a who's who of global insurance. Activant Capital led the $180 million Series A in 2021 that made it a unicorn.

Tokio Marine led a $196 million Series B in 2023, with MetLife and Malaysia's Khazanah joining. LeapFrog Investments added another $50 million.

Then in 2025, MUFG's Dragon Fund led a Series C that valued the company around $2.1 billion, with Baillie Gifford and Generali also in. Big insurers backing an insurance startup is the whole point.