Cambridge-based Insurify, a marketplace that lets users compare and shop for insurance online, raised $23 million in Series A financing.
The round was led by MTech Capital and Viola FinTech, with participation from Hearst Ventures and two prominent insurance companies: Nationwide, and MassMutual Ventures.
The company also offers products from leading insurance companies including Nationwide, Liberty Mutual and Esurance.
Cofounded in 2016 by husband-and-wife couple Snejina and Giorgos Zacharia following an unsatisfactory experience with the industry, Insurify started out by letting users find the best auto insurance policy based on their needs. The company's offerings have expanded since, and it now also sells home and life insurance.
"We launched a pilot for home and life insurance last year, and we want to get the word out there," said chief product officer Tod Kiryazov.
On the heels of this round, the company hired former SVP of Engineering at KAYAK, Gene Shkolnik, as its CTO. Insurify's co-founder Giorgos Zacharia is the CTO at KAYAK.
The startup claims to have facilitated the sale of over 125,000 policies, with over $130 million in premiums to date. This funding round, Kiryazov said, will help the company expand its team and build a go-to-market strategy.
While other sites allow buyers to compare plans and policies, Insurify claims that it has made this process "friction-free" by connecting to the insurance company's API directly and streamlining the data collection process. Put simply, a user wouldn't have to fill out a questionnaire for each individual plan from different providers. The company also assures that Insurify doesn't sell user data to third parties, and neither does it call customers unless "explicitly" requested.
“Our mission is to make insurance shopping transparent, and to empower everyone to make insurance decisions on their own without the help of an agent," co-founder and CEO Snejina Zacharia said in a statement.
The company currently employs a staff of 15 and expects to grow the team to a total of 60 employees this year. It will hire for roles in software engineering, marketing and product management.
