End clap for Luko. The French insurance start-up, in receivership since November, has been taken over by Allianz, the Bobigny commercial court announced on Wednesday. Four other companies – Leocare and Magnolia, Lovys and Laka – were in the running to buy the home insurance specialist at the court. But Allianz was the best bidder. The German insurance giant, which had proposed a symbolic price of 4 euros during a previous hearing in December, will ultimately pay 4.32 million euros to take over Luko and especially all of its 112 employees. This made the difference compared to competing offers.
Luko, which has 230,000 contracts, mainly home insurance, had become heavily indebted with the successive acquisition in 2022 of the German insurer Coya and the French specialist in unpaid rent insurance Unkle. In June 2023, he requested the opening of an accelerated safeguard procedure with the Bobigny commercial court. A first buyer, the British insurance group Admiral, had positioned itself before withdrawing its offer at the last moment.
Luko had raised 69 million euros since its creation in 2018, notably from funds EQT Ventures, Accel, Funders Fund, Speedinvest, Orange Ventures and private investors. It was valued at its peak at 260 million euros. But the context of rising interest rates over the past two years has cooled investors. And Luko was no longer able to raise funds. Which precipitated his fall.
The young company leaves, according to our information, a debt of 20 million euros to its creditors, including the shareholders of the start-up Uncle, investment funds, Bpifrance and BNP Paribas.