Insurtech startup Briza.io raises $3 million in funding to transform the $120 billion commercial insurance industry

The commercial insurance industry is a $120 billion business and continues to accelerate. However, the industry is still plague with delays and and inefficient processes. It can take a commercial insurance agent up to 5 hours to write an insurance policy for a small business, for a very small commission, which is a huge pain. Enter Briza.io, an insurtech startup on mission to solve this problem by providing a platform that connects insurance underwriter systems to insurance agencies.

Just as Stripe enables credit card payments with a few lines of code, and Plaid seamlessly enables bank payments, Briza enables any app to sell insurance from our carriers with a few lines of code. Briza.io currently has partnerships with 4 top insurance carriers, including Crum & Forster (a Fairfax company), Hiscox, Markel, and Coalition. As a validation of its success, over 100 insurance agencies have already signed up for the closed beta version of the product all across the United States.

Today, Briza announced it has just closed another round of funding, bringing its total funding to $3 million.  Founded in 2016 by CEO Ben Munro, the Toronto, Canada-based Briza provides insurance-as-a-service API that lets customers get quotes, pay online, and have an insurance policy issued instantly. Briza team is led by CEO Ben Munro (20 years insurance exec experience), Rishi Sharma (former director of engineering, FreshBooks), and Dom Bortolussi (founder, TWG).

Briza is backed by major institutional investors including 500 Startups and Leaders Fund. Angel investors include Sid Sankaran, CFO of Oscar Health; Alon Neches, former Treasurer, AIG; Sharon Ludlow, former CEO, Swiss Re Canada; Mike McDerment, CEO of FreshBooks; Louis Beryl, Founder and former CEO of Earnest Inc.

“They say the commercial insurance industry walks slowly, but this can’t continue in the era of APIs. Briza is creating the infrastructure that underwriting systems will use to talk to insurance agencies, consumer apps, and anybody who wants to instantly sell insurance with just a few lines of code.” said CEO Ben Munro. “The commercial insurance industry is moving slowly towards the instantaneous, online procurement of commercial policies. It’s about time!” – Ben Munro said.