A startup providing insurance coverage to automation and robotics companies announced it has secured $4 million in outside investment that'll help propel the company's ambitions of increasing distribution and product development.
Koop Technologies Inc., based in the North Side, is also celebrating the recent obtaining of cover holder status with the British insurance and reinsurance marketplace Lloyd's of London, which will give the startup the ability to enter insurance contracts on behalf of Lloyd's syndicate partners. It's being cited as a major win for the company as it'll allow it to expand its product offerings beyond the more than roughly a dozen firms it's providing insurance for already.
"That was a very challenging process," Kamron Khodjaev, co-founder and chief commercial officer at Koop, said. "It was the process that we worked hard on and we've achieved that cover holder status and we are now backed by three Lloyd's of London syndicates."
New York-based Alley Robotics Ventures led Koop's most recent funding round, which also included investment from the Fusion Fund and repeat investors such as Ubiquity Ventures, Bee Partners, WestWave Capital and Sure Ventures.
Through various forms of data collection, Koop — one of Pittsburgh Inno's Startups to Watch in 2022 — combines technology and insurance offerings designed specifically for companies like autonomous-vehicle fleet operators or those using autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles.
Koop employs 14 people full-time, five of whom — the core team, as Khodjaev referred to them — are based in Pittsburgh. He said the company is looking to bring its total employee count to about 20 people within the next year.
