Serbian-Hungarian insurance technology company Ominimo has raised approximately €20 million in an EBRD-backed Series B financing at a reported valuation of €1.4 billion–€1.48 billion, becoming the first technology company headquartered and substantially developed in Serbia to cross the conventional €1 billion unicorn threshold.
The financing, announced on 27 July 2026, is described as the first part of an ongoing Series B round. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development’s venture-capital arm is the principal new investor. Reports place the investment at between €20.1 million and $22.5 million, or approximately $23 million, and the resulting valuation at about $1.6 billion.
Ominimo was founded in 2024 by chief executive Dušan Komar, Dennis Weinbender and chief technology officer Laslo Horvath. It develops software and mathematical models for motor-insurance pricing, customer selection and policy distribution, using large datasets to assess risk more precisely than conventional underwriting systems.
Although the business has roots in both Serbia and Hungary, its principal technology organisation is concentrated in Novi Sad. That distinction supports its description as Serbia’s first domestically based unicorn, rather than merely another foreign technology company founded by Serbian entrepreneurs.
A sevenfold increase in valuation in little more than a year
The new funding marks a sharp revaluation from Ominimo’s Series A round in May 2025, when Zurich Insurance Group invested at an estimated company value of between €200 million and €213 million.
The Series B valuation is therefore almost seven times the level established roughly 15 months earlier. Such an increase is unusual even in a recovering European technology-financing market and indicates that investors are assigning value not only to Ominimo’s current operations but also to its potential to become a multinational insurance platform.
The amount of fresh capital is comparatively small beside the valuation. If €20.1 million is entirely primary capital and the reported figure is a post-money valuation, the investment would represent only about 1.4 per cent of the company. The precise ownership effect will depend on whether later investors join the round and whether any existing shareholders sell shares.
A minority transaction at this scale validates a price negotiated between sophisticated parties, but it does not provide the same breadth of price discovery as an initial public offering. Ominimo’s €1.4 billion figure is a private funding-round valuation, not a listed market capitalisation or an independently realised sale value.
The modest size of the investment also suggests that management is attempting to preserve ownership while financing international expansion. Ominimo does not appear to need a large rescue round or balance-sheet recapitalisation. It says it is already profitable, although it has not published audited revenue, net income, cash flow or insurance-performance figures that would allow outsiders to test that claim.
Premium volumes have increased almost twelvefold since 2024
The operating growth underpinning the valuation is substantial. Ominimo reports that annualised gross written premiums associated with its platform increased from approximately €26 million in 2024 to €158 million in 2025 and have now reached about €307 million.
That represents almost twelvefold growth from the 2024 level and an increase of about 94 per cent from the 2025 figure. The platform began in Hungary before expanding into Poland, the Netherlands and Sweden.
Gross written premium, however, is not the same as corporate revenue. It measures the total value of insurance premiums written through or supported by the platform. Only a portion may accrue to Ominimo as commissions, technology fees, underwriting income or profit participation, depending on its agreements with licensed insurance carriers and distributors.
The valuation therefore cannot be assessed simply by dividing €1.4 billion by €307 million of premiums. The economically relevant figures are Ominimo’s net revenue, customer-acquisition costs, policy retention, claims ratio, operating expenses and the share of underwriting performance retained by the company.
Zurich’s involvement is important because it combines capital with insurance capacity and distribution. The Swiss group became a minority shareholder and strategic partner during the Series A round, providing Ominimo with institutional credibility and access to an established insurer’s balance sheet.
This model allows a technology company to expand faster than a newly licensed insurer could. Ominimo can concentrate on pricing, software, marketing and customer experience while regulated partners provide part of the capital, compliance and claims infrastructure required to issue policies.
The arrangement also creates dependency. A platform reliant on external carriers may lose negotiating leverage as volumes grow, particularly if a partner controls customer access or underwriting capacity. Ominimo’s plan to obtain its own insurance licence is consequently a strategic attempt to retain more economics and exercise greater control over product design.
Becoming an insurer will increase both margins and risk
Part of the new funding will support an application for Ominimo’s own insurance licence, alongside investment in artificial intelligence, product development and entry into additional markets.
A licence could materially change the company’s economics. Writing risk on its own balance sheet would allow Ominimo to retain underwriting profit rather than receiving only commissions or technology income. It could also accelerate product launches and reduce dependence on third-party carriers.
The transition would introduce a much heavier capital and regulatory burden. A licensed European insurer must maintain solvency capital, establish technical reserves, arrange reinsurance, manage claims and meet extensive reporting and governance obligations. Rapid premium growth can consume capital even when the underlying business is profitable because reserves and regulatory requirements rise with the portfolio.
Underwriting technology must also prove itself across a full claims cycle. Motor insurers can produce attractive early results when customer acquisition is fast and claims have not fully developed. The durability of Ominimo’s models will become clearer only after several years of loss data, repair-cost inflation, fraud experience and adverse weather events.
The company will therefore have to balance growth against risk selection. Artificial intelligence may improve pricing accuracy and automate administrative work, but it cannot remove the economic effect of bodily-injury claims, spare-parts inflation, legal awards or regulatory limits on insurance pricing.
Ominimo’s valuation implicitly assumes that its algorithms will continue identifying risks more accurately than incumbent systems as the company enters countries with different driving behaviour, databases and insurance rules. That proposition must be demonstrated market by market.
European expansion becomes the principal execution test
Ominimo intends to expand into Belgium, Romania, Spain, Italy and France, followed by a possible US launch in 2027. The funding will also support additional recruitment and the creation of insurance products beyond the company’s initial motor portfolio.
The geographic pipeline is ambitious. France, Italy and Spain are large insurance markets, but they contain established domestic carriers, price-comparison platforms and distribution networks. Each jurisdiction applies different rules to policy wording, data use, pricing, claims handling and consumer protection.
Romania may offer stronger growth and lower customer-acquisition costs, but compulsory motor insurance has historically been exposed to intense price competition and insurer failures. The US would introduce an even more fragmented regulatory structure because insurance approval and rate-setting are substantially organised at state level.
International expansion cannot consequently be achieved through software translation alone. Ominimo will need local underwriting data, regulated partners, distribution channels, claims administrators and customer-support operations. The cost of building those networks will determine whether premium growth produces operating leverage or merely expands the company’s expense base.
The present funding appears sufficient for product development and entry into several European markets, particularly if Ominimo continues using partner insurers. It would be modest for financing a fully capitalised insurer across several jurisdictions. Additional equity, reinsurance or strategic capital is likely to become necessary as the licensed operation grows.
Novi Sad becomes an export base for insurance technology
Ominimo employs approximately 130 people and plans to increase the workforce to around 150 by the end of 2026. About two-thirds of its employees work in software development or data science.
The company has highlighted a technical team that includes eight Mathematics Olympiad medallists and one Physics Olympiad medallist. This concentration of quantitative expertise is directly relevant to its product: motor-insurance pricing depends on the ability to convert large, imperfect datasets into commercially usable predictions.
At the current premium run-rate, Ominimo supports approximately €2.4 million of gross written premium for each employee. That figure does not measure revenue productivity, but it demonstrates the scalability of a business built around software rather than branches and large sales organisations.
For Serbia, the greater economic significance lies in the location of high-value employment and intellectual property. The country has produced many engineers and founders who subsequently built large businesses in the United States or western Europe. Ominimo offers a different model in which an internationally financed technology platform retains a substantial operating centre in Novi Sad.
The domestic venture-capital market could not have financed this growth alone. Serbian surveys continue to show that more than 70 per cent of local start-ups seek external funding, while access to capital remains one of the ecosystem’s principal constraints. Ominimo’s investors—including Zurich and the EBRD—illustrate the importance of international institutions in financing companies once their capital requirements move beyond seed stage.
The unicorn designation should nevertheless be interpreted carefully. Several companies founded by Serbian entrepreneurs have previously exceeded billion-dollar valuations abroad. Ominimo’s claim is narrower: it is being presented as the first Serbia-rooted, domestically headquartered technology start-up to achieve that status while maintaining a large local operating organisation.
Its contribution to Serbia will ultimately depend on more than the nationality of its founders. The relevant measures are where engineers are employed, where intellectual property is owned, where profits are taxed and whether experienced staff later create or finance additional companies.
Ominimo has established the valuation milestone after only two years of operations. The next evidence will come from audited financial performance, claims experience, licence approval and the economics of expansion beyond its first four markets. Its €1.4 billion–€1.48 billion valuation places the company among Europe’s most valuable young insurance technology businesses; sustaining it will require premium growth to translate into durable underwriting and cash profits.
