Liberty Mutual just announced it’s diving further into the startup realm. The Fortune 100 insurance company has launched a venture capital arm, with a $150 million fund to invest in early-stage, tech-service hybrid companies.
According to Russ MacTough, managing director of the new Liberty Mutual Strategic Ventures, the fund is planning to do $1 million to $5 million investments, per deal.
“We’ll have three core focus areas,” MacTough told the Term Sheet’s Dan Primack. “The connected home, next-generation vehicles and the on-demand economy.” Additionally, he explained they’re looking to be a part of rounds from the seed level up to Series B.
This isn’t the first step Liberty Mutual has taken to inch its way into the innovation space. Back in January, the company announced it was launching an incubator, Solaria Labs, and it would be occupying space in WeWork’s South Station location on Atlantic Ave. As the Boston Business Journal reported, the placement in the coworking space was tactical. Liberty Mutual wanted the incubator to be immersed in startup and innovation culture so it’s influenced by it.
“It allows us to get (access) to new ideas and new talent,” Sandeep Gupta, vice president and head of innovation at Liberty Mutual, had told the Business Journal. “You can do that pretty easily just rubbing shoulders in the hallway.”
Liberty Mutual’s incubator, its new VC arm and the other resources allotted for innovative partnerships aren’t exclusively dedicated to ventures working in insurance. In fact, its Strategic Ventures branch has already invested in August, a San Francisco company that has developed a smart lock.
Liberty Mutual has no shortage of cash to throw at such ventures. Its $1 milion to $5 million investment range is no more than the company spent in 2010 on an office renovation for its CEO and chairman (then president), David Long, according to a series of Boston Globe articles elucidating compensation and the many perks enjoyed by Liberty's executive suite.
