John Fohr wasn't seeking another investment when he began chatting with Craft Ventures, a San Francisco venture capital firm.
But Fohr, the CEO of insurance technology startup TrustLayer, was immediately impressed with Craft's portfolio that included the likes of Airbnb, Reddit and SpaceX.
"[Craft Ventures'] portfolio is a who’s who of incredibly successful SaaS [software as a service] companies," Fohr said. "We hit it off, and I'm just really excited about them. And they know a lot about the insurance industry, given the history of some of the partners."
They, along with other investors in the industry, participated in TrustLayer's $15.1 million Series A round, following a $6.6 million seed round the company closed earlier this year. Tampa Bay Lightning owner and longtime startup supporter Jeff Vinik participated in both rounds.
Craft Ventures led the latest funding, and Brian Murray, partner and COO at the firm, will join TrustLayer’s board of directors.
"There was certainly a lot of interest given how much of the insurance industry has gotten behind us," Fohr said. "That's what got a lot of the venture world behind us. The issue we’re solving is nothing short of one of the biggest pain points in the industry."
The company, which Fohr and Vincenzo Acinapura co-founded in 2018, offers an application that reduces the back-and-forth paper trail between businesses when it comes to verifying business partners — such as vendors, suppliers and subcontractors — credentials and certifications.
It's been a bit of a whirlwind for Fohr, who moved to the Bay area from the Silicon Valley region late last year with the hopes of finding strong insurance-focused tech talent.
"Now that we entered a certain rhythm, we have some more resources and don't have to have a 'fire drill' all the time," he said. "When you're at earlier stages, you're trying to convince people to quit their jobs and join this dream. It's pretty challenging — they have to have a lot of trust and faith in you. So, we’re just so glad so many have decided to do that."
He plans to use the funding to fuel that talent growth. The company has roughly 40 employees, which he said will likely double by the end of the year, with a "majority" hopefully coming from the local talent pipeline.
"Silicon Valley and maybe New York are special and unique in their own way, but folks here in Tampa really understand the pain point we're trying to solve," he said. "There is so much insurance and construction and real estate business, they feel the pain and understand when they get to the job site, they don't want to have deal with the compliance stuff and have to wait to even start working."
While the Tampa Bay startup scene has been on a hot streak with funding, the $15 million total is relatively large for the region, especially considering it's in the earlier stages of investment.
While Fohr repeatedly emphasized he is currently only looking at a six-month, "laser-focused" timeline, he does expect to raise a Series B funding round eventually, potentially toward the end of the year. In the more immediate future, the company is piloting a digital proof of insurance solution with patent-pending technology.
"We know we’re growing quickly; we don't want to spread ourselves too thin," Fohr said. "We've got our heads down; we’re focused on automating this insanely legacy process that hundreds of millions of participants have to deal with, and we’re just focused on solving that pain point."
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