Federato, First Solution To Unify Insurance Underwriting And Portfolio Management, Announces $15M Series A Investment

Software Platform Uses Unique Data Architecture and Reinforcement Learning-Based AI to Give Insurers a Complete View of Data for More Accurate, Informed Underwriting

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 19, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Federato, the insurance industry's first "RiskOps" platform, which aligns portfolio strategy and underwriting action, today announced it has raised $15M in Series A funding, led by Emergence Capital, the investors behind Salesforce, Zoom, Veeva, Box and other SaaS leaders, with participation from Caffeinated Capital and Pear. Other backers include Niranjan 'Niji' Sabharwal, Cofounder and CEO, AgentSync; and John Raguin, Cofounder and former CEO, Guidewire. Federato's investors collectively have more than $50B in assets under management and over $500B in exits.

Federato's unique approach allows insurers to operationalize underutilized data assets, such as catastrophe models and cyber security scans, to address the insurance industry's most pressing challenges including climate change, social inflation, and cyber risk. Federato uses reinforcement learning-based AI to provide a dynamic, unified view of risk selection data, portfolio strategy, underwriting rules, and goals directly within the underwriting workflow. This approach helps guide underwriters toward the right decisions to grow their business and avoid unnecessary losses. Federato's highly configurable platform can be implemented in 8 to 12 weeks, versus the 12 to 24+ months typically required with insurance enterprise software.

"We had made numerous attempts to initiate a digital transformation in underwriting in recent years – it was a source of tremendous frustration," said Tom Fitzgerald, President, Commercial Insurance at QBE North America, a $17B global insurance carrier. "Working with Federato was wildly different. In a matter of weeks, we advanced our operations technologically by two decades!"

During the first half of 2022 alone, Federato grew its ARR 10x, revenue 6x, and customers 4x, gaining equal traction across large insurance carriers, managing general agents, and insurtech market entrants. Insurers using Federato's platform have seen a 15 to 1 reduction in the number of web-based apps and screens needed for risk selection and underwriting, as well as improved returns on reinsurance thanks to more proactive portfolio management. 

"Insurance companies have invested heavily in third-party data and new predictive models, but they struggle to assess complex risks, resulting in unnecessary losses and missed opportunities for growth," said Mark Breading, Partner, Strategy Meets Action. "Federato conducted thousands of hours of interviews to understand what is at the root of this problem and found that it is a failure to get actionable insights into the hands of underwriters as part of their daily workflow."

According to the Swiss Re Institute, global economic losses from natural and man-made catastrophes alone were USD 202 billion in 2020, up from USD 150 billion in 2019. Additionally, all insurers are coping with the impacts of social inflation, cyber attacks, and other emerging risks. The insurance industry is under increasing pressure to address these issues while also confronting day-to-day operational challenges, including:

• Costly misalignment between insurers' portfolio strategy and underwriting action,
• Underwriters frustrated by the amount of mundane manual tasks and 'data foraging' they must perform in their daily work,
• Difficulty retaining and attracting talent and younger employees who are the future of insurance,
• Solutions that are unable to keep pace with the evolving role of the modern underwriter.

"The reality today is insurers are investing a massive amount of money in data to confront emerging risks, but have very little to show for it," said Will Ross, Federato CEO and Cofounder. "Our focus is on putting insurers back in the driver's seat, helping them operationalize underutilized data investments to meet their strategic goals while enabling them to address the serious social issues facing the industry."

The funding will be used to accelerate Federato's growth in the North American Property & Casualty and Specialty insurance markets through continual improvements to its platform and the recruitment of top talent to grow its team. As part of the raise, Lotti Siniscalco, Emergence Partner, will join the company's board.

"Federato has a bold vision and has built a product for an immense and underserved market in Property & Casualty insurance. The company's RiskOps platform serves insurers' most important function, underwriting, which sits at the very core of any insurer's decision making. This is an exciting combination." said Lotti Siniscalco, Emergence Capital Partner. "In conducting our due diligence prior to investing in the company, what really stood out was how enamored clients were with the Federato solution and the team's ability to deliver rapid time to value. It's incredibly rare to find a company with this much customer love this early in its evolution, particularly in the insurance industry. We believe that Federato is on the path towards becoming an iconic company that will have a tremendous impact on insurers, their employees, and their customers."

"We were looking for a platform that would allow us to harness the power of our data, and Fedarato's offering clearly stood out from the competition," said Josh Dunmire, Chief Underwriting Officer at Insurate, a data science-based provider of workers compensation insurance.

"At Insurate, we are on a mission to make workers comp insurance pricing fairer by removing subjectivity and bias from the risk selection process," said Joe McIlhon, CEO of Insurate, launched in 2019. "In Federato, we have found a trusted partner that shares our core values and commitment to transform insurance through better data."

"Propeller prides itself on helping insurance carriers and agents issue surety and fidelity bonds more efficiently with zero hassle or delays," said Chris Kolger, Chief Operating Officer, Propeller Bonds. "The surety space has been underserved by technology. Federato has been huge for us – not only does the platform help us deliver the speed, intelligence, and efficiency our clients demand, the team has worked with us to avoid millions in startup costs and increase our capacity by more than 3x as we grow our business."

Federato will be unveiling new product capabilities at InsureTech Connect (ITC), the world's largest insurtech event, in Las Vegas, September 20-22. Visit booth 3239 to meet the executive team and see a product demonstration.

Federato's industry-first RiskOps platform for Property & Casualty and Specialty insurance aligns portfolio strategy with underwriting action. Designed by underwriters for underwriters, the solution drives better underwriting decisions, productivity, and results by operationalizing underutilized data investments to surface real-time risk and portfolio insights. Federato delivers a sleek, modern underwriting experience combining a unified workflow with real-time risk data, empowering underwriting and operations teams to meet their strategic goals and grow their book of business. Learn more at www.federato.ai.

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SOURCE Federato