$82 million using Kin.com — Kin raises

Firm rebranded to a .us and then upgraded to the matching .com.

InsurTech startups seem to be prime candidates for securing domain name upgrades. In 2019, homeowners insurance provider Hippo paid $3.3 million to acquire Hippo.com, while more recently, car insurance firm Root took ownership of the Root.com domain.

Consumer-facing firms, especially those that provide critical services like insurance, often benefit from owning ultra-premium domains since of the immediate trust and brand longevity that they emit.

Another leading InsurTech firm caught my eye this stretch following it completed an $82 million Series D funding round, bringing its total raised to $238.2 million, as stated by Crunchbase.

The firm in question, Kin, stood out to me thanks to its domain name, Kin.com. Another insurance firm with a stunning domain name.

Founded in 2016, Kin was originally named Bright Policy, with co-founders Sean Harper and Lucas Ward unveiling the firm at a 500 Startups mini-conference. The duo received plenty of early interest, raising $650,000 in seed funding just months following launching.

By the time Bright Policy raised its seed funding round in mid-2017, it had by now rebranded. The firm filed a trademark for Kin in early 2017, and by March, the firm was operating on Kin.us.

In July 2017, a month ahead of disclosing its $3.3 million seed funding round, Kin made a move for Kin.com. Up until Kin’s buyout, Kin.com was in the hands of tech giant Microsoft, which secured the name in 2009 ahead of launching its short-lived mobile phone, Kin.

As a side note, Microsoft reportedly invested more than $1 billion in developing the Kin platform ahead of scrapping it in 2011. Kin.com was left redundant.

Microsoft divested Kin.com in 2017 when it also sold off a number of other premium domains such as Firefly.com and Jellyfish.com, primarily purchased by investors.

Following its buyout of Kin.com, Kin soon transitioned to its fresh domain name and grew at an impressive rate, especially in 2021. Last year, Kin achieved 320% year-on-year growth.

Having just raised a further $82 million in funding, Kin and its Kin.com domain are in a perfect position to gain a larger market share.