Exclusive: Clark establishes holding structure

According to information from Startbase, the insurtech has founded an SE (Societas Europaea). This could be a sign of an IPO, but CEO Christopher Oster denies the rumors.

Insurtech Clark founded a new holding structure on March 4, under which the start-up presumably intends to bundle its existing business activities. Officially entered in the commercial register, the start-up has an SE, which is the abbreviation for Societas Europaea. This is a European legal form for stock corporations, for example to bundle activities in different countries.

According to the official entry, Clark Holding SE has registered the management of the Clark group of companies and the holding of investments as its purpose. The Clark team has used the previous business address in Frankfurt as the location. The new legal form gives Clark the opportunity to go public. Unlike an AG, however, this does not necessarily require a supervisory board and a management board, which is why younger companies in particular like to choose this form of public limited company. However, Christopher Oster, CEO and co-founder of Clarke, told Startbase that his start-up is not currently planning an IPO. "An IPO is one of several ways for start-ups and scale-ups to raise capital. Clark is not currently planning an IPO," he says.

The insurtech company has recently been riding a wave of success. For example, the start-up took over the Finanzen Group from Allianz X and thus became a unicorn in terms of valuation. At the same time, Allianz X also bought into Clark and became the largest minority shareholder in one fell swoop. The next piece of good news came at the end of 2021: Clark closed the year as a record year. Despite the coronavirus crisis, the insurtech doubled its number of customers.

Christopher Oster, Steffen Glomb, Marco Adelt and Chris Lodde founded Clark in Frankfurt in 2015. The insurtech offers an insurance manager. In addition to various locations in Germany, Clark is also represented in Vienna.