How will Hippo compete against its deep-pocketed rivals? : My colleague Robert Hackett and I sat down with Hippo Insurance CEO Assaf Wand to talk about, well, insurance. Hippo raised $100 million in new funding in July, making it a “unicorn” startup, meaning the firm is privately valued at $1 billion or more. The company’s backers include Comcast, housing giant Linnar, and Bond, a late-stage investment fund recently spun out of Kleiner Perkins that’s led by renowned investor Mary Meeker. As I noted several weeks ago, insurance is an attractive category in financial tech right now.