Travel Focused Faye Lands $31M Series B Funding

Faye has closed a $31 million Series B funding round led by Portage, alongside Lumir Ventures and existing investors F2 Venture Capital, Viola Ventures, and Munich Re Ventures. The capital from this new round will be used to support Faye’s expansion of its travel insurance, assistance, and financial services products. Since its founding in 2022, Faye has raised a total of $49 million through multiple funding rounds.

Faye provides an iOS and Android travel app that offers users trip protection, including insurance, real-time trip monitoring, and financial services. The company caters to American travelers with features such as quick digital claims filing, real-time trip alerts, and telemedicine access. Faye’s services cover flights, hotels, health (including pre-existing conditions), luggage, and pets.

Founded by CEO Elad Schaffer and CTO Daniel Green, Faye is headquartered in Richmond, Virginia, with additional offices in New York, Florida, and California. According to Faye, the company has grown rapidly, achieving a tenfold increase in sales year-over-year and earning consistent 5-star reviews from its users. For 2024, revenue is expected to grow fivefold, with projected usage by hundreds of thousands of global travelers.

“In just two years, Faye has become the most-loved, fastest-growing, and highest-rated company in our space,” said Mr. Schaffer. “Our sales have grown 10X year-over-year while setting a new standard on customer experience and retention.”

The travel insurance industry is projected to grow significantly in the coming years. According to a report by Allied Market Research, the global travel insurance market size was valued at $19.2 billion in 2019 and is expected to reach $39.3 billion by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 17.4% from 2020 to 2027. This growth is driven by increasing travel activities and the rising demand for comprehensive travel protection products and services.

Faye faces competition from several companies in the travel insurance and assistance space, including Virginia-based Allianz Global Assistance, Australia-based World Nomads, Wisconsin-based Travel Guard (a subsidiary of AIG), Nebraska-based Travelex Insurance Services (a subsidiary of Cover-More Group), and Illinois-based AXA Assistance USA (a subsidiary of AXA Group).

“We have been following Faye’s journey from the beginning and are excited to see the company marry both travel and fintech solutions in order to deliver holistic care to travelers,” said Stephanie Choo, a partner at Portage Ventures. “This is an underserved and often overlooked market with untapped value to capture. Portage remains bullish as ever on the next generation of fintech companies, and we are excited to back the team in their journey to build Faye into one of the world’s largest platforms dedicated to looking after travelers’ needs.”

Portage Ventures invests across all stages in the United States, Canada, and Europe-based FinTech and financial services sectors. The Montreal-based firm was founded in 2016 and closed its most recent fund with $1 billion of capital in June 2023. Today, Portage has more than $2.5 billion in assets under management. Portage is a venture capital strategy within Sagard, a multi-strategy alternative asset management firm with over $25 billion in assets under management.

Lumir Ventures, headquartered in Tel Aviv, Israel, makes early and growth-stage investments in the technology and financial sectors. The firm was founded in 2018 and closed its most recent fund in December 2022 with $500 million in capital.