Breathe Life Secures $4.5M Seed Funding to Accelerate Expansion in North American Health Insurance Market

VCBeat (WeChat Official Account: vcbeat) has learned that startup Breathe Life announced the completion of a $4.5 million seed funding round on February 26, 2019. The round was led by Diagram Ventures, with participation from Canadian venture capital firm Real Ventures. The proceeds will primarily be used to expand Breathe Life’s operations in North America and develop new health insurance products.

Breathe Life, established on January 3, 2018, and headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, is a health insurance company. The company is dedicated to providing convenient, accessible, and cost-effective health insurance solutions. Breathe Life was co-founded by Arach Tchoupan, Jean-Nicholas Hould, Sébastien Malherbe, and CEO Ian Jeffrey. These four serial entrepreneurs bring extensive experience in managing and operating innovative technology companies across Canada, Silicon Valley, and New York City.

Since the rise of the health insurance industry, sales volumes for individual insurance products in North America—such as life, critical illness, disability, and travel insurance—have remained largely stagnant. Prolonged sales cycles and a focus on high-net-worth individuals have led to a continued decline in purchases of new insurance products. Furthermore, significant shifts in consumer purchasing habits, particularly among millennials, have created a substantial mismatch in perspectives between insurers and potential customers. Breathe Life has successfully attracted this target demographic through modernized operational approaches.

“As more consumers expect fast, seamless digital purchasing experiences, the health insurance industry faces distribution challenges,” said Ian Jeffrey, Co-Founder and CEO of Breathe Life. “Breathe Life helps distributors tap into broad yet underserved markets through digital solutions that enable more effective and cost-efficient nurturing of existing customers, as well as identification and acquisition of new ones.”

After just one year of operations, Breathe Life has demonstrated the viability of its business model and attracted the attention of insurance providers.

“We believe that mobile networks, big data, and artificial intelligence are already transforming the health insurance industry, which is full of opportunities,” said Francois Lafortune, Founder and CEO of Diagram Ventures. “Breathe Life is helping insurers and distributors stay one step ahead, leveraging cutting-edge technologies to win market share, compete with traditional rivals, and engage in fierce competition with technologically advanced new entrants. Breathe Life has achieved commendable results, and we look forward to providing the necessary support as the company continues to grow.”

John Stokes, a partner at Real Ventures, added, “The health insurance industry is a blue ocean market, and Breathe Life is the leader in this space. We believe the future belongs to them.”

Diagram Ventures is a venture capital firm headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, dedicated to building the next generation of global companies based in Canada. The firm focuses on sectors such as financial and insurance technology, primarily investing in early-stage startups.

Real Ventures is a venture capital firm founded in 2007 and headquartered in Quebec, Canada. The company primarily invests in early-stage startups and technology-driven enterprises.

(Compiled by Hu Xuan)