What Onlia does

Onlia is a Toronto-based digital insurance brokerage operating across Canada, offering car, home, and a broad portfolio of lifestyle insurance products to individual consumers and small groups. Founded in 2018 as a subsidiary of Southampton Financial Inc., the company operates a digital-first platform that enables customers to obtain quotes in approximately three minutes, purchase policies online, and manage coverage 24/7 without phone calls; licensed brokers remain available by phone for assisted sales, creating a hybrid self-serve distribution model. Onlia is part of the Southampton Group of Companies alongside affiliated brokerages Alteri Insurance, aha insurance, and Cheep Insurance, with cross-affiliate data sharing enabling broader product offerings.

The product portfolio spans auto (car, motorcycle, ATV, snowmobile, motorhome, trailer), property (home, condo, tenant, landlord, second home, seasonal, mobile home), and lifestyle (life, boat, pet, travel, group) categories, all distributed through the Onlia website and mobile app. Insurance protection is facilitated through a core underwriting partnership with Verassure Insurance Company, while Onlia benefits from financial backing by Achmea, a major Dutch financial services group whose influence is evident in the company's Dutch-origin CEO (Pieter Louter) and emphasis on cycling advocacy and road-safety content. The mobile app includes driving tracking features with perks for safe drivers, pointing toward a telematics-based usage model.

Onlia monetizes through insurance premiums collected from policyholders on a monthly pre-authorized billing basis, with pricing individualized by risk factors such as driver history, vehicle type, postal code, and coverage selections. Bundling discounts of up to 30% on home and 20% on car insurance incentivize cross-product purchase, while the customer base is concentrated in Ontario drivers as the primary segment and includes homeowners, renters, and lifestyle asset owners across Canada. Marketing is content-driven through the Onlia Magazine blog, social media (Twitter/X as @OnliaCA), and email communications focused on road safety, insurance education, and lifestyle topics.

Name

Onlia

Legal name

Onlia Agency Inc.

Website

https://onlia.ca

Company type

Private

Founded year

2018

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

Onlia is a Toronto-based digital insurance brokerage offering car, home, and lifestyle insurance to Canadian consumers via a digital-first platform with 3-minute quotes. Backed by Southampton Financial Inc. and Dutch insurer Achmea, it sells through Verassure and operates self-serve policy management.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Toronto

HQ country

Canada

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D

Revenue model

1. Insurance Premiums: Onlia generates revenue through insurance premiums collected from policyholders. As a licensed brokerage, they offer car and home insurance products through partnerships with Verassure Insurance Company. Premiums are calculated based on individual risk factors and billed monthly via pre-authorized payment methods.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Onlia is a licensed digital insurance brokerage (Onlia Agency Inc.) that distributes personal car, home, and lifestyle insurance products across Canada. Customers obtain a quote online in about 3 minutes, purchase coverage in a few clicks, and manage their policy 24/7 through the website and mobile app, with optional licensed broker assistance by phone. Products are underwritten and serviced through partner Verassure Insurance Company, with Onlia earning brokerage commissions on placed policies.

Product overview

Onlia is a digital insurance brokerage offering a portfolio of insurance products across multiple categories including auto (car, motorcycle, ATV, snowmobile, motorhome, trailer), property (home, condo, tenant, landlord, second home, seasonal, mobile home), and lifestyle (life, boat, pet, travel, group). The core offering consists of digital car and home insurance products available across Canada, designed to be purchased and managed entirely online through their web platform and mobile app. Customers can bundle car and home insurance for savings, and access licensed brokers for personalized assistance. The platform provides a 3-minute quote process, online purchasing, and 24/7 policy management without requiring phone calls. Onlia operates as a licensed brokerage backed by Southampton Financial Inc. and provides insurance products through Verassure Insurance Company.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Quantifiable outcome

• Save up to 30% on home insurance and up to 20% on car insurance when bundling

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Two partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Verassure Insurance CompanycoreTechnology or IntegrationOnlia accesses Verassure Insurance Company and their respective products and services to provide insurance protection based on customer needs. Onlia assesses and facilitates insurance protection using their knowledge of Verassure's products.
• Southampton-Affiliated BrokeragesminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerSouthampton Financial Inc. group includes Alteri Insurance, aha insurance, Cheep Insurance, and Southampton Underwriting Managers Inc. Customers may have their information shared among affiliated brands for additional products and services.

Scale indicators1 record

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• aha insurance: aha insurance is a sibling brokerage within the Southampton Financial Inc. group (alongside Onlia, Alteri, and Cheep), sharing data and customer cross-referrals. It is one of Onlia's closest direct competitors because of shared ownership and overlapping Canadian P&C product offerings.
• Alteri Insurance: Alteri Insurance is another Southampton-affiliated Canadian brokerage operating in the same auto/home/property space. It is a direct intra-group peer since customer information may be shared among Southampton brands for additional products and services.
• Square One Insurance Services: Square One is a Canadian direct-to-consumer online home, tenant, and landlord insurance provider. It overlaps with Onlia's home, tenant, condo, and landlord product lines and its online bind/service model mirrors Onlia's PLG distribution approach.
• PolicyMe: PolicyMe is a Canadian digital life insurance platform that has expanded into home and auto through partnerships with multiple carriers, using a tech-led consumer experience similar to Onlia's. It directly competes for the same digitally-native insurance buyer in Canada.
• Sonnet Insurance: Sonnet is a Canadian online-first auto and home insurance provider owned by Aviva Canada, offering quotes and policy management through a digital experience comparable to Onlia's 3-minute quote and online bind model. It is the most direct competitor in the digital-broker / direct-DTC P&C space in Canada.

Broad incumbents

• Aviva Canada: Aviva Canada is a major Canadian P&C carrier that owns the Sonnet digital brand and also distributes through brokers. It is comparable both as an underwriting capacity provider (potential alternative to Verassure) and as a competitor owning the most direct digital peer to Onlia.
• Intact Financial Corporation: Intact is Canada's largest P&C insurance carrier with consumer brands including belairdirect and Johnson Insurance, plus significant brokerage distribution. It is the dominant incumbent pricing and capacity setter in Canadian auto and home and the implicit benchmark Onlia's quotes are measured against.
• BrokerLink: BrokerLink is one of Canada's largest insurance brokerages, offering auto, home, and commercial coverage through a broad retail brokerage network. It is a comparable incumbent distribution channel against which Onlia's digital proposition competes for the same Canadian personal lines buyer.

Emerging players

• Lemonade Inc. Lemonade is a US digital-first insurer using an AI-driven, app-native, multi-line (renters, home, auto, pet, life) model that parallels Onlia's positioning as a digital-native multi-line personal insurance brand, although Lemonade is also a carrier rather than purely a brokerage.
• Root Insurance: Root is a US telematics- and mobile-first personal auto carrier that pioneered usage-based pricing on a smartphone app — the same behavioural-pricing trajectory that the Onlia app and Achmea partnership suggest Onlia may pursue. Comparable as a category-defining telematics-led auto insurer.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/onliaca

Compliance2 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles4 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Onlia