NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Covered by SAGE, a modern, tech-enabled Property and Casualty (P&C) insurance brokerage revolutionizing the insurance industry, today announced it has successfully closed a $6 million seed round, led by NFX with participation from Tectonic Capital and Treasury, the fintech platform launched by Acorns and Betterment Co-Founders. Additional investors include Metaprop, Blue9, and the founders of Casper, Tinder, Pillpack, Flatiron Health, and Thumbtack.
Covered by SAGE is a plug-and-play agency platform that significantly lowers the financial, operational and technical burden of building, managing and retaining an insurance book of business. The platform empowers agents by providing them with a refined product marketplace to win more business, drastically changing their retail dependency and reducing the need for years of apprenticeship - redefining what it means to be a retail agent in today’s tech-driven and socially distant landscape. By using technology to give agents a more complete vision of their customers’ unique exposures, Covered by SAGE agents have an edge in sophisticated advisory.
“Insurance agents play a vital role in risk management in our communities,” said Rashik Adhikari, founder and CEO of Covered by SAGE. “However, traditional brokerages, underpenetrated by technology, are falling behind in empowering retail agents to navigate the fast-evolving insurance distribution landscape. A retail agent today needs to have the flexibility to write insurance policies from anywhere and the economics that support them. We are excited about being able to challenge the status quo for better outcomes for both insurance agents and their customers.”
“We have seen the customer need for a new type of virtual agency powered by technology. The timing is ideal, given the recent availability of insurance APIs. This is a huge opportunity which Covered by SAGE is set to lead,” said Gigi Levy-Weiss, Managing Partner of NFX. “By rewriting this technology for agents, Covered by SAGE is able to strengthen their role, empowering them to write a lot more business.”
The vast majority of the $670B of annual P&C insurance premiums in the U.S. are distributed by approximately 800,000 agents working in 16,000 brokerages. However, traditional brokerages are inefficient, use limited technology, and take a disproportionate share of the economics from individual agents. Covered by SAGE was founded with the goal of giving agents the technology and support to maximize their potential and the flexibility needed to write P&C insurance from anywhere. The company’s innovative technology uses APIs to offer customers a simple, transparent risk management platform to access top risk advisory no matter where they are.
“Insurance as an industry has been slow to adapt with advances in technology and software,” said Josef Feldman, Founding Partner of Tectonic Capital. “As a founding investor in Covered by SAGE, we believe that Rashik and his team will empower agents in the digital age with cutting-edge technology to streamline success. This, in turn, will benefit customers who will now have access to their risk advisor instantly.”
Covered by SAGE was founded by Rashik Adhikari while at Harvard Business School alongside Doug Rowe, a former investment banker at Oppenheimer & Co. and e-commerce entrepreneur. Adhikari was previously an investor at Soros Fund Management, where he saw P&C brokerage roll-ups disproportionately benefiting the brokerage owners at the expense of the individual agents. The company previously raised pre-seed in 2018 led by founding investor Tectonic Capital, with additional funding from the co-founder of Tinder.
“As remote work is normalized, traditional brokerages will need to reevaluate their current practices in order to support agents at every level,” said Jeffrey Cruttenden, co-founder of Treasury, the fintech platform launched by Acorns and Betterment Co-Founders. “We are excited to support Covered by SAGE’s innovative platform utilizing technology to disrupt an antiquated industry and allowing agents to grow their business no matter where they are located.”
About Covered by SAGE
Covered by SAGE is a modern, tech-enabled P&C insurance brokerage that turns agents into super-agents. By leveraging cutting-edge technology and best-in-class expertise across the brokerage value chain, SAGE empowers top agents and brokers to write more business, strengthen the relationship with their clients and be a consummate risk advisor. Covered by SAGE has launched in Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina and is currently accepting applications from top P&C agents. For more information visit: CoveredbySAGE.com
About NFX
NFX is a seed-stage venture firm based in San Francisco that is transforming how true innovators are funded. As Founders ourselves, we built 10 companies with more than $10 billion in exits across multiple industries and geographies. We believe that creating something of true significance starts with seeing what others do not. More info: nfx.com | @NFXGuild
About Treasury
Treasury was created by the founders of Acorns and Betterment to support the most ambitious ideas in financial technology. To learn more visit thetreasury.com.
About Tectonic Capital
Tectonic Capital is an early-stage venture capital firm focused on backing world-class teams who are redefining consumer and enterprise experiences for the digital era.