Global Insurance Accelerator
321 E Walnut St Suite 130, Des Moines, IA, 50309, United States
Overview
The Global Insurance Accelerator is a mentor-driven accelerator designed to foster innovation in the insurance industry through startups targeting the global insurance markets. With support and funding from seven Central Iowa insurance companies, the accelerator welcomed a class of 6 companies in February 2015. The startups were given access to over 80 mentors through a speed-dating-like process that resulted in the startups selecting 3-8 Lead Mentors to help them during their time in Des Moines and beyond.
- Total investments
- 4
- Lead investments
- 0
- Investments · 12mo
- 0
- Active investors
- 7
Sector focus
- Financial Services
- Insurance
Investment portfolio
- MotionsCloud
Participated · Equity · May 2022
MotionsCloud is a German insurtech that uses augmented reality and artificial intelligence to assess and expedite home and auto insurance claims. Led by CEO LeX Tan, the company provides an automated property and vehicle inspection solution designed to make claims processing faster and more efficient. Its platform leverages AR and AI to automate inspections and support insurers in damage assessment and claims workflows. MotionsCloud already cooperates with firms across Europe, the US and Asia. The company raised US$2m in a funding round and intends to use the proceeds to pursue further expansion efforts. Investors in the round included SOSV, Net Insurance, AI Startup Incubator, ParticleX, Artesian, Excon Services and Global Insurance Accelerator.
- Cowbell
Participated · Seed · Sep 2019
Cowbell provides Adaptive Cyber Insurance tailored to small and medium-sized enterprises, using continuous underwriting to adapt coverage to evolving threats. Its platform uses an AI-based approach in risk selection and pricing, powered by "Cowbell Factors," to compress the insurance process from submission to issue in less than five minutes. Led by CEO and Founder Jack Kudale, the company emphasizes advanced warning of cyber risk exposures for SMEs. Cowbell plans to use new funding to scale operations, extend its presence in key international markets, bolster cyber resilience services, introduce new products, and strengthen strategic partnerships. The company has offices in Canada, India, and the U.K. and has raised $202M to date. Cowbell offers adaptive cyber insurance for small and medium-sized enterprises, providing coverage adaptable to today’s and tomorrow’s threats and advanced warning of cyber risk exposures. Its AI-based approach to risk selection and pricing powers a continuous underwriting platform, Cowbell Factors, which compresses the insurance process from submission to issue in a few 5 minutes. The company is backed by over 20 global (re)insurance partners and serves SMEs in 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, and the United Kingdom. Founded in 2019 and based in the San Francisco Bay Area with headquarters in Pleasanton, CA, Cowbell has employees across the U.S., Canada, India, and the U.K. The company raised $25M in equity from Prosperity7 Ventures and intends to use the funds to expand across the U.S. and U.K. Led by founder and CEO Jack Kudale, Cowbell focuses on compressing underwriting timelines and scaling its coverage for SMEs. Cowbell Cyber is a full-stack, Pleasanton-based insurance company that provides AI-based cyber insurance and bundled cybersecurity services to SMEs across the U.S. Its core product ingests massive datasets—monitoring about 71% of U.S. companies (roughly 23 million businesses) across some 1,000 data points—feeding an algorithmic evaluation platform called Cowbell Factors to assess continuous, individualized risk profiles. Those assessments determine premiums and provide customers with guidance to improve security posture; Cowbell also collaborates with about 45 cybersecurity vendors and sells through a channel network of roughly 14,000 brokers. The company operates its own reinsurance arm, Cowbell Re, and bundles security services at no cost as part of its product. Cowbell says it will not pursue consumer or large-enterprise markets and does not intend to license or white‑label its technology. Financially, the company did not disclose valuation, customer count, or revenues but reports a premium run rate that grew 40x this year to $200 million and projects policyholders to expand three-fold to 35,000–40,000 in the next 12 months. Cowbell Cyber offers individualized cyber insurance for businesses with up to $1 billion in revenue using an AI-based continuous underwriting platform called Cowbell Factors. Its platform compresses the insurance process from submission to issue to less than five minutes. The company operates Cowbell Insurance Agency, which is licensed in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia, and has a distribution network of more than 4,500 agents and brokers. Led by Founder and CEO Jack Kudale, Cowbell is focused on expanding product capabilities and risk-engineering services. The company plans to use new capital to accelerate product development, grow risk engineering, and increase sales, marketing, and national footprint. Cowbell Cyber is a Pleasanton, Calif.-based startup that builds AI-powered cyber insurance and continuous risk-assessment tools for small to mid-sized enterprises. Its core product is a continuous risk assessment, underwriting and cyber liability insurance platform that uses an inside-out approach and automated, real-time insights to identify and mitigate insurable cyber risks. The company’s flagship continuous risk-ratings factor, Cowbell Factor™, enables customized protection and recommendations to match evolving customer needs. Cowbell plans to launch its Cowbell Prime™ policy initially in California for businesses up to $250M via a retail broker distribution channel in Q1 2020. It secured $3.3M in seed funding to accelerate go-to-market and product development. The executive team is led by founder and CEO Jack Kudale, with co-founders Rajeev Gupta (CPO), Trent Cooksley (COO) and Prab Reddy (VP Engineering).
- Insurmi
Participated · Equity · Sep 2019
Insurmi is a conversational-AI powered customer engagement platform built for insurance carriers. Its digital suite helps carriers generate new business online, streamline customer claims, and deliver an improved customer experience. The platform has attracted a diverse array of customers across the insurance sector, including two Fortune 500 insurance carriers and top-tier global insurers. Sonny Patel founded the company in 2016 to simplify the insurance buying and selling process for millennials and Gen Z. Insurmi plans to use new capital to accelerate market expansion and grow its team at its Phoenix headquarters. The company secured an additional $1 million in funding to support this growth.
- FindBoB
Participated · Seed · Dec 2017
FindBob offers a white-labelled enterprise transition management platform that helps financial professionals and their firms manage transitions to perpetuate and protect books of business. The platform supports carriers, agencies, brokerages and RIAs with tools and analytics to identify growth opportunities and a dedicated concierge support for advisors. Company principals can use a secure digital channel to discover opportunities to buy, sell, merge, partner or address succession. Led by founder and CEO Roland Chan, FindBob targets multi-generational succession and transition behavior among advisors. The company closed over USD $1.25M in seed funding and intends to use the proceeds to grow sales and marketing, expand into additional U.S. markets and execute its multi-generational product roadmap. FindBob is based in Toronto, Canada.