Helvetia Venture Fund invests in Urban Connect, a Swiss start-up for business mobility

Media release
St.Gallen, 22 November 2022
 

The Helvetia Venture Fund is acquiring a stake in the start-up Urban Connect. The company offers a wide range of services including fleet management and optimization as well as software solutions in the area of business mobility. 

The Helvetia Venture Fund is acquiring a minority stake in Urban Connect. This Swiss start-up operates in the area of business mobility and takes a holistic approach, whereby companies can outsource the management of their entire fleet to Urban Connect for e-scooters, bicycles, cargo bikes, e-bikes and electric vehicles. Urban Connect takes care of the procurement and management of the company's fleet. Employees of the affiliated companies can book and unlock vehicles using the company's own app. Public transport use is also incorporated into the app. The Urban Connect dashboard ensures a high level of transparency regarding vehicle use, which allows companies to optimize their fleets and, in the process, reduce their carbon footprint. 

Investing in the next generation of business mobility 
The investment in Urban Connect is part of the implementation of the helvetia 20.25 strategy, which focuses on tapping into new business models. From the perspective of corporate customers, this particularly involves the topics of convenience, employer attractiveness and sustainability, which are becoming increasingly prominent. "With its stake in Urban Connect, the Helvetia Venture Fund is investing in the next generation of business mobility. It thus has the opportunity to be involved from the outset and to incorporate findings regarding the needs of corporate customers into its own products and services", explains Adrian Kollegger, Head Non-Life Switzerland and Member of Executive Management Switzerland at Helvetia. Robert Ruttmann, co-founder and CEO of Urban Connect, adds: "For us, Helvetia is more than an investor. As an insurance company it is familiar with the changing needs of large companies and their employees, and thus offers a valuable additional perspective for our strategy." 

Urban Connect will use the new funds to expand its presence in Switzerland in particular, and to prepare for expansion abroad. 

About the Helvetia Group
Helvetia Group, with its headquarters in St. Gallen, has grown since 1858 to become a successful insurance group with over 12,000 employees and more than 7 million customers. It has been enabling its customers to seize opportunities and minimise risks for all that time Helvetia is there for them when it matters. Helvetia is the best partner and is present everywhere that protection needs arise, with insurance, pension and investment solutions from a single source as well as simple products and processes. The insurance group knows the business, from mobile phone insurance and insurance cover for the Gotthard Base Tunnel to the longterm investment of customer assets. Helvetia develops and opens up new business models with enthusiasm and drives forward its own business in a powerful and future-oriented manner. It acts with foresight and responsibility in everything it does: for the benefit of its shareholders, customers and employees as well as its partners, society and the environment.
Helvetia is the leading allnlines insurer in Switzerland. In the Europe segment comprising Germany, Italy, Austria and Spain, the company has firmly rooted market positions for generating above average growth. In the Specialty Markets segment, Helvetia offers tailored special insurance and reinsurance cover worldwide. With a business volume of CHF 11.22 billion, Helvetia generated IFRS net income after tax of CHF 519.8 million in the 2021 financial year. The shares of Helvetia Holding AG are traded on SIX Swiss Exchange.

Cautionary note
This document was prepared by Helvetia Group and may not be copied, altered, offered, sold or otherwise distributed to any other person by any recipient without the consent of Helvetia Group. The German version of this document is decisive and binding. Versions of the document in other languages are made available purely for information purposes. Although all reasonable effort has been made to ensure that the facts stated herein are correct and the opinions contained herein are fair and reasonable, where any information and statistics are quoted from any external source such information or statistics should not be interpreted as having been adopted or endorsed as accurate by Helvetia Group. Neither Helvetia Group nor any of its directors, officers, employees and advisors nor any other person shall have any liability whatsoever for loss howsoever arising, directly or indirectly, from any use of this information. The facts and information contained in this document are as up to date as is reasonably possible but may be subject to revision in the future. Neither Helvetia Group nor any of its directors, officers, employees or advisors nor any other person makes any representation or warranty, express or implied, as to the accuracy or completeness of the information contained in this document.
This document may contain projections or other forward-looking statements related to Helvetia Group which by their very nature involve inherent risks and uncertainties, both general and specific, and there is a risk that predictions, forecasts, projections and other outcomes described or implied in forward-looking statements will not be achieved. We caution you that a number of important factors could cause results to differ materially from the plans, objectives, expectations, estimates and intentions expressed in such forward-looking statements. These factors include: (1) changes in general economic conditions, in particular in the markets in which we operate; (2) the performance of financial markets; (3) changes in interest rates; (4) changes in currency exchange rates; (5) changes in laws and regulations, including accounting policies or practices; (6) risks associated with implementing our business strategies; (7) the frequency, magnitude and general development of insured events; (8) mortality and morbidity rates; (9) policy renewal and lapse rates as well as (10), the realisation of economies of scale as well as synergies. We caution you that the foregoing list of important factors is not exhaustive; when evaluating forward-looking statements, you should carefully consider the foregoing factors and other uncertainties. All forward-looking statements are based on information available to Helvetia Group on the date of its publication and Helvetia Group assumes no obligation to update such statements unless otherwise required by applicable law.