Vishal Sankla led product at digital life insurance agency Ethos before going public earlier this year. In late 2023, a veteran engineering executive who previously worked at Facebook and Uber left Ethos to launch Outmarket, a startup that uses AI to automate all the tedious paperwork for insurance agents and brokers.
“Ninety-five percent of insurance in the U.S. and around the world is still sold through[human]agents, and if you look at what the process looks like now, it’s very manual,” Sankra told TechCrunch. “This is a huge opportunity given the enormity of this industry.”
Outmarket focuses on commercial insurance. This is because these insurance policies contain deep nuances and are customized to suit any business. Companies must navigate a complex mix of coverage options, from general liability and workers’ compensation to directors and officers (D&O) liability.
“There are over 250 different types of coverage, depending on what kind of business you are in, what risks you have and what you want to cover,” Sankra said. “Each process is very different. There are different applications that need to be filled out and different documents that need to be read.”
Outmarket’s AI automates these time-consuming administrative tasks, allowing brokers to quickly evaluate and recommend the best insurance coverage, freeing them to focus on tasks that require human intervention, such as serving customers during emergencies.
Since launching the new product 14 months ago, its value has attracted more than 300 insurance agencies as Outmarket customers, including 25% of the top 100. “The insurance industry is not typically a very fast-moving industry, but it is growing very rapidly,” Sankra said.
Investors are also impressed with the company.
Outmarket is set to announce that it has raised $34.5 million in Series B led by SignalFire with participation from Fika Ventures, Permanent Capital Ventures, TTV Capital, and Dash Fund. The new round comes four months after the startup’s $17 million Series A, valuing the company at $335 million, according to people familiar with the investment.
The startup isn’t the only one building an AI operating layer for insurance brokers. Other startups looking to help insurance brokers include Fulcrum AI and Future AI.
But with more than $1 trillion in annual premiums in the U.S. property and casualty insurance market alone, Sancla believes Outmarket has plenty of room to grow by helping agents work faster and smarter.
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