Japan’s Mitsui Sumitomo Leads $36M Round In Israel’s Upstream Security

Israeli cybersecurity startup Upstream Security announced a strategic partnership with Japan’s Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance (MSI) company through a capital investment of $36 million as part of the Herzliya-based firm’s Series C funding round.

MSI is leading Upstream’s C round as part of a larger investment round that will be announced by Upstream.

Founded in 2017, Upstream offers cloud-based cybersecurity and machine learning and big data analytics for connected and autonomous vehicles. 

The strategic partnership with MSI aims to revolutionize the car insurance industry, allowing insurance companies to use connected vehicle data to gain meaningful insights for various insurance-related areas including improved risk management and enhanced customer experience.

The rapid growth of the connected car ecosystem has brought along with it an increased interest in telematics-based services, the company says. Upstream’s cloud-based mobility data platform expands MSI’s data analytics capabilities and enables MSI to provide additional risk-related services based on driver usage and behavior, the company said in a statement.

“As part of our ‘Vision 2021’, medium term business plan, we at MSI aim to improve the customer experience through digitalization,” said Masashi Ippongi, director, managing executive officer at Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Company, Limited. “Upstream’s data analytics vantage will help MSI satisfy the consumer demand for higher-value and next-gen insurance products, applications, and services.”

MSI strives to provide security and satisfaction to their customers, and Upstream’s machine learning and big data platform is designed to unlock the value of mobility data. Through this partnership, MSI and Upstream will bring the power and benefits of automotive telematics data into the hands of the insurers and policy-holders.

“The Upstream and MSI partnership will open new data-driven opportunities for both automotive manufacturers, insurance companies, and their customers,” said Yoav Levy, co-founder and CEO at Upstream. “We are excited to work with MSI to expand our existing mobility data platform and to develop deep and long-lasting relationships with their customers and automotive OEMs in Japan.”