Layr raises $5 million in Seed round

Atlanta-based, digital, small business broker Layr (formerly UnBrokerage) announced a $5 million Series Seed round of financing. Sandbox Insurtech Ventures led the round with participation from new investors Flyover Capital and Maschmeyer Group Ventures, and from existing investor, Lloyd’s of London. Chris Zock, managing director of Sandbox Insurtech Ventures and Keith Molzer, general partner at Flyover Capital will join Layr’s Board of Directors.

Founded in 2016 by Phillip Naples and Andrew Egenes, the company is currently a team of ~12. Layr has placed more than $2B of aggregate coverage limits across thousands of policies through several carriers including CNA, Chubb, The Hartford, Hanover, and Beazley, according to the company. Layr also partners with traditional brokers to bring “more flexible” product offerings and modern, digital experience to their small commercial clients.

According to SimilarWeb, Layr doesn’t generate enough website traffic for it to present a traffic overview.

“Our straightforward pricing model allows us to earn revenues two different ways”

Layr receives a commission from carriers for every policy purchased and* charges businesses “a percentage-based finance fee of up to 20% of premium.” It also promises insurance shoppers up to 35% in savings; that’s more than what Next (up to 30%) or biBerk (up to 20%) promise.

“The traditional insurance revenue model has been known to incentivize brokers and agents to sell policies customers might not need or with inflated coverage limits. Our finance fee-based revenue model, in contrast, covers the costs associated with allowing our customers to pay for their insurance monthly and with a credit card, building and maintaining our online platform, and allows us to be profitable on even the smallest insurance policies. As a result, we never recommend that customers buy insurance they don’t need or select coverage limits that are too high for their company.”

“We didn’t set out to offer the least expensive business insurance because, like with most things, you get what you pay for. We don’t believe in selling lower quality insurance products filled with terms that allow the insurance carrier to get out of paying claims. Instead, we only sell high quality insurance policies from A-rated insurance companies. That being said, our customers are still saving up to 35% compared to purchasing insurance through the traditional process. Why? It’s simple. Our process is not only easier for business owners, it’s also easier for the insurance carriers. It’s so efficient, in fact, that our insurance carrier partners are often willing to bind policies for much less than competing digital and traditional brokers and we pass those savings directly through to our customers.” – Layr.

Get a feel for the flow below:

* Layr didn’t respond to our request for comment regarding its pricing strategy.