Led · Series B · Aug 2019

Zendrive develops smartphone-based driving-safety solutions and analytics that leverage patented algorithms and machine learning to reduce collision risk. The company’s RiskReveal suite and new FullStop product provide predictive capabilities such as speeding, aggressive acceleration, and stop-sign-violation risk. Zendrive says its insights have helped partners including Juno, Grupo Sura, and AXA XL, adding millions in revenue to those partners. Led by CEO and co-founder Jonathan Matus, the company targets insurers for underwriting, loss control, and claims processing use cases. Zendrive intends to use the new funding to continue building its mobile driving-safety solution and to grow its team across five continents. The product and go-to-market focus are centered on the global insurance market. Zendrive provides driving-safety analytics by collecting sensor data from smartphones and packaging it as licensing-based telematics for enterprise customers such as on-demand services and trucking companies. The company offers an SDK that is free for up to four drivers, charges $4 per driver per month for fleets of five to 99 drivers, and requires a custom quote for larger deployments. Zendrive has developed features like Automatic Collision Detection in collaboration with BMW, tested at BMW crash-test facilities, which detects collisions in real time and can notify call centers or emergency contacts. The startup is 2.5 years old, has 35 employees and is based in San Francisco. Its new funding will be used to double the team by year end and further refine its technology. Zendrive positions its phone-based approach as more relevant to multi-driver on-demand services and as avoiding certain cybersecurity weaknesses tied to on-board diagnostics hardware used by some competitors. Zendrive builds driver-focused telematics that use smartphone sensors to measure speed, acceleration and other signals to assess driver behavior. The company today launched ZenFleets, its first paid service, which tracks vehicle location and tries to determine whether drivers are paying attention to the road. Unlike many competitors that rely on vehicle sensors, Zendrive emphasizes phone-based data and argues that smartphone signals are comparably accurate. ZenFleets also looks for driver distraction such as phone use, and the product is targeted at rideshare, carshare and last-mile delivery companies. Zendrive positions the service as a way for on-demand transport businesses to scale safely and efficiently through driver-centric analytics. The company previously raised a $1.5 million round in August 2013 and has recently closed a strategic financing whose size was not disclosed. Zendrive is a San Francisco-based company developing an approach to provide driving-related data to consumers. The company aims to make roads smarter, commutes shorter, and rides safer, greener, more fun and affordable. Its product is intended to promote better driving habits and to help consumers make better decisions about auto-related purchases and services. Leadership includes Jonathan Matus (President and CEO) and Pankaj Risbood (VP, Data). In August 2013 Zendrive raised $1.5M in seed funding. Backers included First Round Capital, Max Levchin, Jerry Yang, Tim Ferriss and other tech founders and investors.

Participated · Series B · Apr 2019

Embroker offers a digital platform that simplifies commercial insurance purchasing and focuses on complex, industry-specific lines such as Directors & Officers, Employment Practices Liability, Cyber, and Professional Liability. It uses predictive modeling and proprietary technology to fully automate underwriting and create tailored policies and premiums. Embroker plans to become a full‑stack insurtech by building its own insurance carrier and is investing in Embroker Access to enable partner agencies and wholesalers to offer its products. The company reported strong operating metrics in 2021: surpassing $20M in gross written premium in Q1, achieving over 100% retention, growing its digital products more than 300% year-to-date, and earning an NPS of 77. All digital products are underwritten on Embroker’s platform and are backed by A+ rated reinsurers including Munich Re and Everest Re. Founded in 2015 and headquartered in San Francisco, Embroker has raised more than $140M to date and will use the new funding to accelerate system building and product expansion. Embroker offers an all-in-one digital insurance platform that provides instant underwriting, proprietary insurance policies, real-time claims tracking, and instant certificates of insurance. The company digitizes antiquated processes to deliver custom-built commercial policies from more than 50 carriers and provides data-driven guidance from industry-specialist advisors. Embroker serves growing businesses with 10 to 1,000 employees and reports more than 2,500 customer companies. In 2018 the company tripled revenue and was on track to more than double revenue again in 2019; it has provided more than $1B in liability coverage to technology companies in less than eight months. The platform generates an average of 20% cost savings for customers and the firm says it already works with over 5% of active VC-backed U.S. technology companies, aiming to exceed 10% by the end of 2019. Embroker is developing additional proprietary digital policies for a range of other industries and will use new capital to scale adoption of its insurance management platform and data-driven services. Embroker is a cloud-based risk and insurance management platform that uses its own software, data and predictive analytics to help businesses buy all types of commercial insurance. The platform lets users upload policies for free to benchmark coverage, recommends coverage and optimizes pricing, and automates insurance management processes. Embroker combines technology with a team of licensed professionals and partnerships with more than ten commercial carriers, including The Hartford and Travelers. The company is licensed in all 50 states, headquartered in San Francisco, and was founded in 2015. It has a team of 24 employees and emphasizes transparency and simplicity for SMBs that typically manage multiple policies via manual processes. Embroker positions its product as a way to save business owners time and money by improving coverage optimization and risk management.

Participated · Series A · Sep 2018

Slice Labs provides Insurance Cloud Services (ICS), a subscription, API-based platform powered by machine learning, advanced data analytics and Ph.D.-level behavioral science that enables insurers to quickly ideate, experiment, test and deploy on-demand digital insurance products. ICS includes API-based pricing, rating, licensing, claims processing and automated underwriting, and the platform has been used to launch products across the U.S. and seen significant global demand. Slice launched in 2016, introduced ICS to market in January 2018, and rolled its digital on-demand platform out to all 50 states last year. Top insurers including XL Catlin, Legal & General and The Co-operators have launched or are developing on-demand offerings on ICS. The company recently hired Chief Growth Officer Philippe Lafreniere in August to support global expansion and insurer adoption. Slice will use new financing to continue expanding its ICS offering on a global scale to meet higher-than-planned demand. Slice Labs built an On-Demand Digital Insurance Platform that enables pay-per-use insurance for homesharing and ridesharing, and offers a turnkey solution for carriers including pricing, underwriting, servicing, and capacity. The company leverages cloud infrastructure, algorithms, and data to lower issuance costs, increase claims automation, and reduce fraud and loss. Since launching in 2016, Slice has focused on direct insurance of sharing-economy assets and on selling its platform to large carriers globally. Slice launched its first homeshare product in October 2016 and has seen double-digit monthly revenue growth while expanding homeshare coverage to 26 states, reaching over 70% of the U.S. population and 82% of the homeshare market. The company plans to have homeshare coverage in all 50 states by the end of 2017, and its rideshare product is in testing and slated for launch soon. The platform is intended to let insurers quickly deploy products for new-economy assets with deeper customer engagement and a turnkey digital experience. Slice Labs builds an on-demand, pay-per-use insurance platform aimed at workers in the sharing and on-demand economy. The company is preparing to launch what it describes as the world’s first on-demand insurance platform, with an initial product rollout planned in the U.S. Slice positions its product as cost-effective, easy to acquire via a tap, and tailored to emerging risks faced by on-demand workers. Since incorporation in October 2015, Slice secured seed funding from Horizons Ventures and XL Innovate and has now received additional funding and a strategic partnership with Munich Re / HSB Ventures. Munich Re’s Digital Partners group is also working with Slice to provide backing for its on-demand insurance products globally to support faster expansion. The article does not disclose revenue, user metrics, deal size, or specific financial instruments. Slice Labs offers insurance products for on-demand workers and providers, starting with rideshare drivers and then homeshare hosts. Its products are transactional so workers pay only for coverage during the time they are working. Slice handles pricing, issuance, billing and claims management but does not hold underwriting risk, writing policies on another insurer's paper. CEO Tim Attia says the company is addressing insurance and liability gaps in the on-demand economy. Slice plans to launch its first products in June and is deciding where to offer coverage first. The company is based in New York City and hopes to integrate insurance offerings with on-demand services' sign-up processes.

Led · Series C · Jul 2018

Windward offers an analytics platform that continuously monitors and analyzes ship behavior to predict the likelihood of accidents and quantify maritime risk for insurers. Its Windward Insurance product feeds proprietary data and machine-learning models into insurers’ technical pricing models to improve underwriting decisions and profitability. Windward Intelligence supplies intelligence, law enforcement and security agencies with insights that reveal potential maritime threats. The company is led by co-founder and CEO Ami Daniel and maintains offices in Tel Aviv and London. Windward intends to use new funding to strengthen its position in the marine insurance market, expedite development and rollout of its marine insurance product suite, hire talent, and expand its London office. To date the company has raised $38.9M in total financing. Windward builds a big-data maritime visibility platform that ingests commercial satellite and other maritime data to track vessel traffic and detect suspicious behavior. Its flagship product MARINT monitors ships 24/7, alerts law enforcement and intelligence agencies to smuggling, illegal fishing and other anomalous activity, and vets signals with cybersecurity algorithms. Windward is also developing FORESEA, a financial analytics platform currently in beta aimed at commodity traders, hedge fund investors, and analysts. The company emphasizes automated, scalable analytics rather than manual information‑services workflows and highlights use cases across security, global supply chains, trading patterns and oil-market transparency. For example, Windward’s data can reveal actual oil available in floating storage versus reported figures, a metric useful to oil traders and price watchers. The company intends to scale MARINT, bring FORESEA to market, expand its data and analytics platform, and pursue data partnership programs.

Led · Series B · Jun 2018

CAPE Analytics uses machine learning and computer vision to create instant property intelligence and attributes that traditionally required on‑site inspection. The company’s product is aimed at organizations that finance, insure, and invest in residential and commercial properties. Since its founding in 2014, CAPE has grown to serve over 50 subscription customers, including Hippo Insurance, Amica Insurance, and State Auto Insurance. The business plans to diversify its suite of data sources and partnerships, expand its coverage footprint across the U.S., Canada, and beyond, and grow its machine learning, data science, and risk teams. The company emphasizes rapid, scalable property insights for underwriting, valuation, and risk decisioning. The Series C funding will accelerate creation of new property insights for its growing client base. Cape Analytics applies computer vision and machine learning to geospatial imagery to produce property intelligence at the time of quote. Its platform delivers comprehensive property attributes with the accuracy of on-site inspection and the speed and coverage of property record pre-fill. The company maintains a historical database of over 90 million structures in the U.S., enabling time-series analyses, linking property characteristics to loss, and detecting property changes over time. Cape Analytics serves insurers and other property stakeholders, and is backed by leading venture firms and innovative insurers. Founded in 2014 and based in Mountain View, Calif., the company is staffed by experts in computer vision, data science, and risk analysis. It plans to accelerate development of solutions for property insurers leveraging geospatial analytics and other unique information sources. Cape Analytics uses computer vision and machine learning on geospatial imagery to create a structured database of property attributes for insurers and reinsurers. Its data includes building footprints, roof condition, nearby hazards, and other features, and covers over 70 million buildings across the United States. The product delivers instant property intelligence at the time of underwriting or quote, enabling more accurate pricing and faster online quotes with fewer consumer questions. Founded in 2014 and based in Mountain View, Calif., the company expanded coverage from Florida to nearly every single-family home in the country and has tripled headcount since its last financing. The fresh $17M will be used to expand sales and AI-centric product development teams in response to rapid customer interest and adoption. Cape Analytics also plans to explore expansion into new geographies and additional insurance applications to improve data quality used for insurers' critical decisions. Cape Analytics provides a cloud-based platform that uses geospatial imagery, computer vision and machine learning to automatically extract proprietary property data. Its API integrates with insurance carriers' quote engines to deliver near inspection-quality property feature data across entire portfolios. The data is intended to improve underwriting, speed and accuracy of quotes, and enhance the agent and customer experience. The company plans to use the funds to expand its engineering and sales teams and to bring its proprietary data platform nationwide. Cape Analytics was established in 2014 and is led by CEO Ryan Kottenstette and CTO Suat Gedikli. It is based in Palo Alto, CA, and maintains additional offices in Munich, Germany.