Nayms, the Bermudian-based insurtech start-up that is the world's first fully regulated marketplace for on-chain insurance, has closed its private token sale in a round led by UDHC, a leading decentralised finance investor.

Nayms said UDHC is aiming to bring DeFi to the mainstream by funding and guiding projects that are building on established DeFi protocols.

The company said it has now raised a total of $12 million. Longstanding supporters such as UDHC, New Form, Tokentus and Keyrock participated in the latest funding round, assisting the insurtech start-up in what it said is its busiest year to come.

UDHC CEO Steven Becker said: "As a fully regulated marketplace for on-chain insurance, Nayms represents the next major step in risk transfer.

“Using blockchain technology, Nayms extends traditional risk markets using decentralised tools and features that take risk pricing and management to a new level.

"Bringing on-chain capability to traditional markets creating a new, efficient and transparent financial future is the primary focus of UDHC, and we believe the team at Nayms has the potential to shape that future."

Dan Roberts, CEO of Nayms, said: "It is very exciting for us to work more deeply with one of our very first investors and board members.

“The real experience that the UDHC team has continues to drive us forward as we navigate building and launching our proposition to the market. This round of funding has set us up for an extremely strong 2023, with all the right players behind us."

Nayms said it will use new funds to expand its global team and accelerate the development of its marketplace for crypto-native insurance.

It added that it plans to grow to further support its product development and marketing and speed up global business expansion.

Nayms said the additional capital will allow it to continue building an end-to-end marketplace to connect brokers, insureds, sponsors and capital providers.

The start-up said it is reaching final stages of development before launching a number of insurance programmes with the likes of Aon, Breach and Evertas.

Thanks to the new capital, the company said, it is possible to accelerate the engineering efforts for continuous upgrades post-launch as on boarding continues for the first users of the marketplace.

Founded in 2019, Nayms said it is building the world's leading digital insurance marketplace for transparent, traceable and tradable digital assets risk.

Nayms, a play on Lloyd’s Names, the investors who traditionally funded Lloyd’s underwriters, has set up two Bermuda Monetary Authority-regulated companies on the island — one having a digital assets business licence and the other having a Class IIGB insurance licence.