Commercial insurance-as-a-service API startup Briza has closed a $8m Series A funding round.
The InsurTech venture will use the new cash injection to increase the supply of insurance markets available to insurance retailers, wholesalers, and developers through its platform.
Investment Group of Santa Barbara led the raise, which also saw participation from existing investors including 500 Startups.
Briza previously raised a $3m seed round in February 2020 backed by firms including 500 Startups, Leaders Fund and several angel investors.
The Series A funding round brings Briza’s total funding to date to $11m.
Ben Munro, co-founder and CEO of Briza, said that the company is set up to make it easier for insurers to use APIs.
“The ‘distribution problem’ in commercial insurance can be understood as such: when an insurer invests the time and capital necessary to build an API, that’s just the beginning; they must now manage relationships with thousands of developers at retailers, wholesalers, insurance platforms, and small business software vendors,” he said. “It’s a massive undertaking. A single API from a carrier only gets you that carrier’s appetite; Briza’s API gives developers a whole marketplace of appetites for small commercial insurance.”
Tony Wang, managing partner at 500 Startups, added, “Briza shows the power of bringing simplicity to a once tedious process by laying the foundation to digitize the purchase of commercial insurance. This is a very complex undertaking, but we are very excited by the progress Ben and his team have made in such a short period of time.”
Briza now has agreements in place with 11 commercial insurers, including industry leaders like Liberty Mutual, Berkshire Hathaway Guard, CNA, Hiscox, AmTrust, Markel, EMPLOYERS, Crum & Forster, and Acuity, along with digital-enabled providers such as Coalition and Coterie.
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