Hippo Insurance Acquires US-Based Home Maintenance Platform Sheltr

Israeli-founded home insurance tech startup Hippo Insurance has acquired Sheltr, a US-based home maintenance platform that helps homeowners proactively care for their homes, the company announced in a blog post last week.

The company was acquired in order to help Hippo further accelerate its mission to modernize how the homeowner protects his home and to “catch and mitigate issues before they become costly repairs,” the post said.

No financial details about the acquisition were disclosed but Hippo does say, “This is our most important partnership, and now acquisition to date.”

Since launching in January 2019, the San Francisco-based startup Sheltr has partnered with companies who benefit from their preventative maintenance software, like Hippo, and raised $3.2 million for its platform in June of this year.

Sheltr makes two annual home checkups to the home of its customer to improve the way the customer protects his or her valued assets and reduce that customer’s unplanned expenses. Hippo customers will now have the option to receive specially designed protective home maintenance checkups for Sheltr. The service is currently rolling out to select customers in the San Francisco Bay Area and Dallas, Hippo says, and will be expanding to new neighborhoods in 2020.

Hippo Insurance was founded in January 2015 by co-founders Assaf Wand, the company’s current CEO, and Eyal Navon. It made its debut in the insurance marketplace in April 2017. The company, which raised $209 million to date, according to Crunchbase, takes a proactive approach to home insurance by using technology to find issues in homes before they become large and expensive problems

Hippo also provides complimentary smart home devices to clients to protect homeowners against water leaks, fire damage, and break-ins. The company has also built partnerships with homebuilders such as Lennar (an investor in Hippo), lenders like Better.com, and homeowner insurers like First American Property & Casualty Insurance to build homes outfitted with sensors and other devices that help reduce maintenance costs, saving clients money.