Meanwhile, a fintech company dedicated to life insurance contracts that are denominated in Bitcoin (BTC), has closed a substantial funding round for $82 million. The funding round has attracted various prominent investors, including Apollo, Northwestern Mutual, Pantera Capital, Stillmark, Bain Capital and Haun Ventures.
As per the Bloomberg article, the fundraise came after just six months of Meanwhile’s series A funding round of $40 million in April. The company’s initial funding in 2023 was led by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
Regulated in Bermuda, Meanwhile claims to be the first life insurer to offer products entirely denominated in crypto. The firm launched its services in 2023 and it invests policyholders’ premiums by lending Bitcoin to large, regulated financial institutions.
Zac Townsend, co‑founder CEO of Meanwhile, notes the firm is now one of the largest Bitcoin lenders in the world. “We are not running a hedge fund or trading desk or worried about the price of Bitcoin day‑to‑day or week‑to‑week or month‑to‑month,” Townsend said in an interview. “We engage on this side of the business in institutional B2B, private credit.”
The unique approach of Meanwhile’s life insurance products provides tax advantages for Bitcoin holders. It enables policyholders to borrow up to 90 % of their policy’s Bitcoin value in a tax‑free manner after two years of signing. The borrowed Bitcoin will adopt a new cost basis, allowing the policyholders to sell the Bitcoin without triggering capital gains taxes, reads the Bloomberg report.