Shepherd raises $13.5 million
Shepherd, an insurance startup focused on the construction space, has raised $13.5 million in Series A funding led by Costanoa Ventures, with participation from Intact Ventures, Era Ventures, Greenlight Re and Spark Capital.
Founded in 2021 and based in San Francisco, the MGA claims that its technology-enabled underwriting process has an average response time of 12 hours, “which is weeks faster than the rest of the industry.” The startup shared that in under 18 months, it achieved five-fold growth in gross written premiums year-over-year and expanded from a single product offering (Excess Liability) to four, encompassing all three primary casualty lines (General Liability, Commercial Auto and Workers’ Compensation).
Shepherd is also introducing a new software solution, Shepherd Compliance, to streamline and automate vendor compliance reviews. Shepherd Compliance uses artificial intelligence to review PDF-based data and automate the management of all related workflows. The software is optimized for Shepherd policyholders and also integrates with project management platforms, like Procore.
“There is an urgent need for innovation in the commercial construction insurance industry. Our mission at Shepherd is ambitious but simple: to create the first comprehensive platform that combines top-tier insurance offerings with world-class software to help commercial businesses manage risk and prevent losses.” – Justin Levine, CEO of Shepherd.
“Commercial construction is a central and vital driver to the overall economy, yet has been overlooked by technology providers for years. High insurance costs and even unavailability of coverage plagues a sector already struggling with tight margins and business risk. The team behind Shepherd is taking a technology-forward approach, developing innovative insurance products that use modern software and data techniques to create a vastly superior insurance offering. Shepherd delivers better priced, better fit policies for clients, thanks to its data and tech advantages.” – Mark Selcow, general partner at Costanoa Ventures.
Since its launch in 2021, the top retail insurance brokers nationwide operating in construction rely on Shepherd for innovative underwriting and its 24-hour submission-to-indication turnaround.
