A couple of startups in the insurtech sector are looking to expand with funding, as the region gets more traction with the industry.
A Grapevine company called Salt, which provides digital tools around home and auto insurance for independent agents, landed a $2 million Series A raise, according to a statement. It was led by Eagle Venture Fund, which has a presence in Southlake and Switzerland.
Draftrs in Dallas — which assists small firms with professional liability insurance — is looking to raise around $2 to $4 million, CEO Audrey Lau said.
North Texas is attracting more activity with technology-tied insurance companies. Dallas-based Bestow, which is bringing digital tools to the life insurance market, has landed more than $140 million in funding.
“What you see in the region is more and more acceptance that every company can be nationally distributed,” CEO Jonathan Simmons told the Dallas Business Journal. “San Francisco doesn't own the monopoly on talent anymore, and the talent is choosing where they want to do life. As a company, we support that, and I believe many others are beginning to do the same.”
Salt helps independent agents easily accept insurance applications online, speeding up a process that can be weighed down by handwritten notes and phone calls.
“Many insurance carriers rely on Independent agents as the channel for distributions,” Simmons said. “Each of those agents spends a significant amount of their time collecting prospect data to quote and rate insurance. Salt is a niche tool to help enhance the consumer data collection process and the customer experience an agent can provide to potential customers.”
The funding for Salt will help build out sales and distribution with hiring while bolstering product development and marketing.
At Draftrs, the company aims to use the funding to help hire folks for developing products, sales and operational functions, according to Lau.
Draftrs is targeting architects and engineers – with plans for more lines in the future, Lau said. The company automates and digitizes the underwriting and distribution process to more efficiently deliver professional liability products.
“Traditional markets are really focused on the middle market and large account space,” Lau said. “That's why you see a lot of insurtechs coming in to fill in that gap.”
In addition, there was an opportunity for professional liability insurance in particular for a new insurtech, Lau said.
“What we noticed was small business insurance was very manual, so we tried to automate everything as much as possible,” Lau said. “We thought about kind of everything through the insurance transaction, and then we kind of built it into our platform.”
Lau co-founded after working in the industry with a resume that includes Hiscox and AIG. Draftrs CTO and co-founder Curtis Corliss was co-founder of ClarionDoor, a software provider, which was acquired.
The timing is good for this type of insurance with Draftrs, Lau said. Professionals have been moving on from their past jobs to strike out on their own to form small businesses.
“Not only was there a huge portion that was underserved in terms of their insurance needs -- it's also a growing segment of our population just based on secular trends,” Lau said.
