Comparison site Compareit4me.com announced today securing $3.5 million from existing investors including Wamda Capital, STC Ventures, Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority and Saned Partners, in its latest phase of funding.

The money raised is part of an initial closing ahead of a larger, Series B round of funding to be concluded in the coming months.

The majority of the new investment has come from existing investors STC Ventures, managed by Iris Capital, and Wamda Capital, which first backed Compareit4me in the company’s Series A in 2015, with both doubling their investment in the business through this latest round of financing. The round also includes further investment from Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority and Saned Partners. To date, Compareit4me has raised over $9 million in total.

Since launching in March 2016, Compareit4me’s insurance business has grown to sell $1.5 million worth of insurance policies per month, with the company expecting that number to reach $5 million per month by the end of 2017.

“Our commitment of further funds to Compareit4me illustrates our belief in the founders’ ability to scale their insurance business across the UAE and the wider GCC. And with Compareit4me soon to enter Saudi Arabia with its insurance comparison platform, we see enormous opportunities for the business,” said Angus Paterson, partner at Iris Capital, which manages the STC Ventures fund.

Khaled Talhouni, managing partner at Wamda Capital, added: “With the launch of its car insurance comparison portal, Compareit4me has managed the addition of a transactional business model with aplomb. We’re excited to support the company’s founders as they build out this line of the business further in the UAE and launch it in new Middle Eastern markets. We have no doubt that there’s another great success story on the horizon.”

William Chappell, chief financial officer at Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority, said: “This funding cycle marks our third investment in Compareit4me. DSOA is committed to supporting promising, technology-based start-ups and we are very proud to be associated with this innovative business that has transformed the online car insurance sector in the UAE.”

As of April 2017, Compareit4me’s year-on-year growth in insurance policy sales reached 600 percent, making the company, by a considerable margin, the largest insurance aggregator in the UAE and one of the country’s top insurance distributors. And with sales five to seven times greater than those of its nearest competitor, over that same period, compareit4me has seen GMV (the total value of policies sold) growth of over 400 percent.

“Progress in the insurance business has been such that we have already outgrown the office we took on last year for our state-of-the-art call centre. As we continue to expand the call centre, we will soon be moving into a much bigger office to accommodate our growing staff of agents,” said Samer Chehab, COO of Compareit4me.

And with the launch of online insurance comparison in Saudi Arabia imminent for Compareit4me, the company is looking to capitalise on pent-up demand for the ability to compare prices and buy policies online.