Jerry has gone on another growth spurt in Western New York since it announced completion of its $75 million Series C funding round in August 2021.
The “car superapp” startup – which is headquartered in Silicon Valley and has an engineering team in Toronto – officially has its largest employee cluster in Lockport, where nearly half of the 200 employees are based.
Jerry has sales, service and underwriting teams in Western New York, said Josh Damico, Jerry’s vice president of insurance operations and the top local employee.
He said the company will continue expanding its presence here. Jerry has a training program that onboards candidates even if they don’t have experience in sales or insurance, paying all costs as they get necessary licenses.
“The talent pool in the area, which we attribute to the number of colleges and universities here, is really phenomenal,” Damico said.
Jerry was among a handful of companies with notable local footprints to be included in Forbes’ recent list of top startup employers, joining tackle.io, KeepTruckin and Bitwise Industries.
Jerry’s app hosts digital marketplaces for various automotive services, including its flagship insurance marketplace. The company expanded last year into auto refinance, which combined with its insurance service to help triple the company’s growth rate in 2021. Jerry is focusing heavily on auto refinance this year as it seeks to build out a suite of complementary marketplaces.
“We’re seeing really good traction and growth on auto refinance as we build out the product and add more lenders to our marketplace,” Damico said.
Jerry, based in 3,000 square feet in the Harrison Place facility in Lockport, was looking for a long-term place in Western New York last year. But the surge of the omicron variant stalled that project.
Damico said the search is again beginning in earnest for an office that can accommodate all company needs, including collaborative space for training and development.
“We’re trying to solve for what our people really want, and what we’re learning they want is flexibility,” Damico said. “We’re not sure what the answer or solution is, but we’re sure we’ll find it.”
