Brazilian startup Segura has raised $8 million in a seed round to build what it calls the operating layer between insurers and brokers across Latin America, a region where insurance penetration remains low at around 3% of GDP but where investment in technology-enabled distribution is surging.
Funding and backers
The round was co-led by Andreessen Horowitz and Kaszek, Latin America’s most active venture firm, with participation from Big Bets, a Tallinn-based VC founded in 2014 that focuses on mobile and technology. Angel investors include Assaf Wand, co-founder and CEO of Hippo Insurance; Marcelo Blay; Fersen Lambranho, a prominent Brazilian entrepreneur and partner at GP Investments; Anderson Thees; and the Almeida Braga family of Icatu, the Brazilian insurance group. Entrepreneurs from the fintech companies NG Cash, Brex, and Fanatics also contributed.
Segura was founded in 2024 by Luis Alberto “Bebeto” Nogueira, Lucca Buffara, and Pedro Nobrega. The company’s mission is to connect insurers and brokers through a single platform that handles quote structuring, policy management, renewals, submissions, and billing across multiple carriers. The new capital will be used to fund engineering headcount, deepen carrier integrations, and expand the insurer and broker network across Latin America beyond Brazil.
Helena: the AI assistant at the centre
At the heart of Segura’s offering is Helena, an AI assistant designed to support brokers with real operational tasks. Helena interprets policy data, customer records, and previous interactions to help brokers explain clauses, guide renewals, compare products, and access approved carrier sources, APIs, and regulatory terms from SUSEP, Brazil’s insurance regulator.
The founders, in a statement to Tech Funding News, said they started Segura because they believed two things. First, that brokers will matter more in the AI era, not less — “insurance is a trust business, and trust doesn’t scale through bots — it scales through people”. Second, that for carriers and brokers to thrive in that world, they need a different kind of infrastructure connecting them.
Brokers can run customer journeys directly through WhatsApp, which is where most of their client communication already happens. Segura’s inclusion in the WhatsApp AI Startups Hub — which the company says makes it the only insurance firm currently in the programme — validates that channel choice. In Latin America, WhatsApp functions as core infrastructure for business communication, and Segura is building specifically for that broker-centric distribution model.
Segura’s direct competitors include FurtherAI and Azos, but the startup differentiates itself by focusing on the Latin American regulatory environment, where SUSEP compliance is non-negotiable, and by tailoring its platform to the region’s heavy reliance on brokers rather than direct-to-consumer digital sales.
Market ambition and context
The long-term ambition is explicit: not to become another legacy broker tool but to define a new category — insurance distribution infrastructure — from the ground up. “Our goal is simple: build the best sales infrastructure the industry has ever had,” the founders said. “Segura makes carriers’ sales operations dramatically more efficient and brokers significantly more productive — and those two compound.”
Segura already has 3,000 brokerage firms on its platform. The backing of two of Latin America’s most active venture firms signals strong confidence in that vision. The broader Latin American insurtech market is showing signs of recovery and maturation: investment surged 117% in 2025 to $199 million, though it remains below the 2021-2022 peaks. There are 536 active insurtechs in the region as of year-end 2025, with the focus shifting towards technology enablement, which now accounts for over 51% of the market, away from pure distribution. Brazil, Mexico, and Chile dominate. The overall Latin American insurtech market generated $468 million in revenue in 2023 and is projected to reach $9.28 billion by 2030, with a compound annual growth rate of 53.2%.
The low insurance penetration — around 3% of GDP — represents a significant opportunity. Embedded insurance is also growing, integrating coverage into e-commerce and fintech platforms, with regional e-commerce sales expected to exceed $160 billion by 2025. On the regulatory front, SUSEP is the primary regulator. Recent legislation includes the Brazilian Insurance Act (Law No. 15.040/2024), effective since December 2025, which reshapes disclosure, policy wording, and claims-handling standards. SUSEP also now mandates consideration and disclosure of climate risks by insurers.
Segura is distinct from other companies bearing the same name. A separate cybersecurity firm called Segura, focused on identity and access management, raised $25 million in February 2026 from Riverwood Capital and Graphene Ventures. A UK-based Segura Systems Limited, founded in 2012, operates in supply chain transparency and compliance. The insurance distribution Segura, founded in 2024, is a different entity altogether.
