Outmarket raises $34.5M Series B for insurance AI

Vishal Sankhla led product at Ethos, a digital life insurance distributor, before it went public earlier this year. In late 2023, the engineering executive — who had previously worked at Facebook and Uber — left Ethos and launched Outmarket, a startup that uses AI to help insurance agencies and brokers automate their paperwork. “Ninety-five percent of insurance in the U.S. and worldwide is still sold through [human] agents, and when you look at sort of like how the process is today, it’s very manual,” Sankhla told TechCrunch. “This is a huge opportunity given how massive this industry is.”

Outmarket focuses on commercial insurance, where policies involve deep nuances and custom tailoring for every business. Companies must navigate a complex mix of coverage options, ranging from general liability and workers’ compensation to directors and officers (D&O) liability — and Sankhla said there are more than 250 different types of coverage, each with its own application forms and documents. Outmarket’s AI automates those time-consuming administrative tasks, helping brokers quickly evaluate and recommend policies so they can focus on work that requires a human touch, such as responding to customers during emergencies.

That value has attracted more than 300 insurance agencies as customers since Outmarket launched a new product 14 months ago, including 25% of the top 100 agencies — fast growth for an industry that typically moves slowly. Investors have taken notice too: Outmarket is set to announce a $34.5 million Series B led by SignalFire, with participation from Fika Ventures, Permanent Capital Ventures, TTV Capital and Dash Fund. The round comes four months after the startup’s $17 million Series A and values the company at $335 million, according to a person familiar with the investment.

Outmarket isn’t alone in building an AI operating layer for insurance brokerages — other startups pursuing the same space include Fulcrum AI and Further AI. But with the U.S. property and casualty insurance market alone worth more than $1 trillion in annual premiums, Sankhla believes Outmarket has plenty of room to grow by helping agencies work faster and smarter.

Why it matters

Outmarket’s bet is that the back-office paperwork behind a trillion-dollar, still human-agent-driven industry is a bigger and more defensible AI opportunity than building yet another consumer insurance app.