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Des Moines, one of America’s insurance centers and more recently home to the Global Insurance Accelerator, has a new venture capital firm backed by insurance companies. David Miles, owner of Miles Capital, and Matthew Kinley executive VP of Pappajohn Capital resources, have launched ManchesterStory with support from a consortium of insurance companies across the U.S. The firm has raised approximately $30 million so far and aspires to grow the fund to $125 million, according to a ManchesterStory source. Names of contributing insurers have not been released.

Miles has been an active investor in the insurance field for three decades, and Kinley’s investment activities have been focused on healthcare and FinTech during the last 22 years.

The new firm’s investment strategy is to target early to growth-stage investments in FinTech and Healthcare, with a particular interest in technologies spurring innovation in the insurance industry, according to ManchesterStory statement.  The company says it expects to be attractive to entrepreneurs seeking to benefit from the firm’s experience in helping startups to succeed, as well as the opportunity to form key relationships within the insurance industry.

Tremendous Investment Opportunity

“We see tremendous investment opportunity in our target sectors, which together comprise 25 percent of the U.S. economy,” Kinley comments. “Each has significant potential for digital transformation, and both are integrally connected to and impacted by insurance.”

Miles notes that traditional players across financial services are coping with disruption by digital innovations that have changed customer behavior. “Technologies that improve customer engagement, decision-making, and back-end efficiencies, are improving the entire value chain,” he comments. “ManchesterStory is ideally positioned to bring together industry leaders and startups around capital and strategy.”

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