Briza raises $8 million
Commercial insurance rater Briza closed an $8 million Series A funding round, bringing its total funding to date to $11 million. The round was led by Investment Group of Santa Barbara, with participation from existing investors including 500 Startups.
Briza’s mission is “delivering commercial insurance to the world.” In practice, that means empowering developers to create delightful user experiences, and democratizing commercial insurance APIs by allowing them to be consumed by as broad an audience as possible. Unlike market competition, Briza is a proudly neutral party. The company has not accepted investment from any insurance brokerage or insurance carrier. This unique posture allows Briza to work conflict-free with insurance agents, brokers, carriers, wholesalers, MGAs and technology providers alike.
Briza now has agreements in place with 11 commercial insurers, including industry leaders like Liberty Mutual, Berkshire Hathaway Guard, CNA, Hiscox, AmTrust, Markel, EMPLOYERS, Crum & Forster, and Acuity, along with digital-enabled providers such as Coalition and Coterie.
Briza is investing in building the critical infrastructure to aggregate carrier quote, bind, and payment capabilities – all via one unified API. This allows Briza to collaborate with unlimited development partners outside of the insurance industry to promote a world of new distribution opportunities for agents and carriers alike.
“The ‘distribution problem’ in commercial insurance can be understood as such: when an insurer invests the time and capital necessary to build an API, that’s just the beginning; they must now manage relationships with thousands of developers at retailers, wholesalers, insurance platforms, and small business software vendors. It’s a massive undertaking. A single API from a carrier only gets you that carrier’s appetite; Briza’s API gives developers a whole marketplace of appetites for small commercial insurance.” – Ben Munro, co-founder and CEO of Briza.
“Briza shows the power of bringing simplicity to a once tedious process by laying the foundation to digitize the purchase of commercial insurance. This is a very complex undertaking, but we are very excited by the progress Ben and his team have made in such a short period of time.” – Tony Wang, Managing Partner at 500 Startups.
“Imagine a future when insurance carriers can seamlessly embed their products in online banking, accounting, or wealth management platforms. The emerging ‘embedded finance’ movement offers one of the most compelling digital growth opportunities to legacy financial institutions such as insurance agents and carriers. By easily translating the quoting, binding, and payment experience, Briza seeks to allow insurance companies rapid, low-cost functionality into adjacent platforms, and likewise enable any brand or merchant to integrate innovative risk and protection services into their digital storefront.” – Rishi Sharma, CTO at Briza.
“Briza’s platform can empower existing channels of commercial insurance distribution and unlock new ones. We’re thrilled to support Briza as it delivers value to its partners in the commercial insurance ecosystem, including brokers, wholesalers, carriers and software developers.” – Ian Martin-Katz, Partner at Investment Group of Santa Barbara.
