(ERA) Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator is New York City’s leading technology accelerator and early-stage venture capital fund. It has invested in 330+ start-ups since launching in 2011. Our alumni companies, who come from all over the world, are already playing leading roles in the evolution of virtually every major global industry. To date, ERA alumni companies have raised more than $2 billion in capital and collectively exceed $10 billion in market capitalization. ERA’s initial investment in participant companies is $150,000 on a post-money SAFE in return for 6% of each company. ERA runs two four-month sessions per year one each in the winter and summer. We invest $150,000 on a post-money SAFE in return for 6% of each company selected. In addition to this financial investment, our companies are immersed in our mentor-driven program. We also provide free office space, free hosting credits with several major cloud providers, and additional benefits through our legal, finance, accounting, and other business-service partners.

(ERA) Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator

Blockchain Founders Fund (BFF) is a Singapore based early-stage Venture Capital Fund which invests in top-tier Blockchain startups globally. Their industry leading go-to-market focused Venture Program aids seasoned and first-time entrepreneurs across key business functions to fast-track growth. BFF has scaled many of the leading Blockchain startups and is always looking to connect with exceptional founders across the industry including Web3, metaverse, gamefi, DeFi, and NFT.

Blockchain Founders Fund

The Park City Angels is a group of accredited investors located in Park City, Utah. We invest in promising opportunities that can produce significant shareholder return. Since inception in 2007, we have made over $50M in seed stage investments.  The active lifestyle of Park City has attracted many dynamic and successful business leaders that have deep experience in building world class businesses. We facilitate unique, high-caliber networking and development forums for angel investors and mentors involved in early-stage investment.

Park City Angels

The Financial Solutions Lab was established in 2014 to cultivate, support, and scale innovative ideas that help improve financial health. We focus on solutions addressing acute and persistent financial health challenges faced by low- to moderate-income (LMI) individuals, Black and Latinx communities, and other underserved consumers. The Financial Health Network manages the Financial Solutions Lab in collaboration with founding partner JPMorgan Chase and with support from Prudential Financial.

Financial Solutions Lab

Bond is a venture capital firm that supports visionary founders of high-growth Internet companies throughout their life cycle of innovation and growth. The firm, a spinout of the Kleiner Perkins Digital Growth Fund, was launched in January 2019 and founded by Mary Meeker with Mood Rowghani, Noah Knauf.

Bond

The two most powerful macroeconomic forces of the information era are exponential technological progress and global expansion of sovereign debt. Each of Demeter Capital's investment holdings is strongly influenced by one or both of these forces. Within the first trend, Demeter Capital's investments include companies that invent disruptive technologies and the downstream assets that benefit from innovation.  Meanwhile, companies that are actively being disrupted or are stagnating within dying industries make up many of our favorite short positions. Within the second trend, Demeter Capital invests in assets that rise or fall in response to traditional macro factors such as interest rates, monetary policy, demographics, etc. These include currencies, commodities, and broad stock and bond indices.

Demeter Capital

Amicle Capital operates as an investment firm.

Amicle Capital

gANGELS

Listen is a consumer-only venture capital firm focused on backing and building the brands of tomorrow.

Listen

Chingona Ventures focus on investing at the earliest stages.

Chingona Ventures

Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund is an outgrowth of Revolution’s Rise of the Rest platform, a national initiative launched in 2014 to spotlight emerging startup hubs. Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund invests in seed- and early-stage companies located outside of New York City, Silicon Valley, and Boston. By partnering with regional ecosystem leaders and co-investors, Rise of the Rest is helping to build and scale the next wave of transformational companies. The Rise of the Rest Seed Funds are backed by a group of iconic entrepreneurs and business leaders committed to the vision that the next great startups will be located outside of the coastal tech hubs.

Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund

Kern Venture Group is a micro VC fund that targets early-stage investments in entrepreneurs who are looking to develop disruptive technology. Its investments offered is made in seed-stage startups, primarily in the tech and industrial sectors.

Kern Venture Group

Newlin is a venture capital and private equity firm that connects founders to capital turning ideas to fundable businesses. It provides a critical linkage for founders to early-stage financing as well as consulting services.

Newlin

Fiat Ventures is a venture capital firm that supports and growing the next generation of market-leading early-stage fintech startups. The company was founded in 2021 and has its headquarters in San Francisco, California.

Fiat Ventures

Remarkable Ventures investing in startups serving and disrupting New York’s largest industries.

Remarkable Ventures

Zeal Capital Partners is a partner with exceptional diverse management teams building early-stage businesses.

Zeal Capital Partners

Varo Capital

We are an entrepreneur first, early-stage venture firm.

Flintlock Capital

Angeles Ventures focuses on early stage funding, and growing Hispanic and Latino startups in the U.S.

Angeles Ventures

Sigo Seguros

Sigo uses data and automation to provide lower-cost policies for the Latino market.

Sigo Seguros offers digital auto insurance through a mobile application and online portal with a Spanish-first approach, specifically targeting immigrant and working-class communities. The company aims to provide affordable auto insurance by eliminating brokering fees and biased rating factors (such as credit score and employment) that disproportionately affect minority communities. As of August 2023, it solely operated in Texas.

New insurance models are disrupting a centuries-old industry with a focus on personalization and convenience

InsurTech: Personal Lines

On the Back of 500% Growth, Sigo Seguros Announces $10.5M Series A Financing Round

Sigo Seguros offers digital auto insurance through a mobile application and online portal with a Spanish-first approach, specifically targeting immigrant and working-class communities. The company aims to provide affordable auto insurance by eliminating brokering fees and biased rating factors (such as credit score and employment) that disproportionately affect minority communities. As of August 2023, it solely operated in Texas.Key customers and partnershipAs of April 2023, Sigo Seguros had issued insurance cover to 15,000+ customers since its product launch in August 2021.Fundings and financialsIn July 2023, the company <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/20086">raised USD 5.1 million in a pre-Series A funding round </a>co-led by Zeal Capital Partners and Listen Ventures. It planned to use the fresh funds to support the company's growth, enhance customer-facing technology, and continue to digitize the underwriting process.Moreover, the company reported that 1H 2023 sales had exceeded its full-year 2022 sales and stated its plans to double its workforce by the end of 2023.

<div>
 
 Root Insurance is a full-stack insurance provider focusing on usage-based automobile insurance. The company offers a mobile app that collects data on driving speeds, braking patterns, and driving times using smartphone sensors, and applies artificial intelligence (AI) and predictive models to offer a personalized premium to the customer. The company claimed that the latest model utilizes double the proprietary data, demonstrating 17% greater predictive capabilities than the previous model. Moreover, the app incentivizes safe driving by providing greater insight into one&rsquo;s driving patterns and issuing additional discounts for improved driving behavior. Root allows customers to file claims directly through the mobile app. As of January 2024, Root held a carrier license in 48 states and offered automobile insurance in 31 states.
 
 In July 2019, Root launched its renters&rsquo; insurance product and expanded to homeowners insurance in May 2020. The homeowners&rsquo; insurance is provided through a partnership with Homesite Insurance, a Boston-based property and casualty insurer that will underwrite any homeowners insurance policies issued by Root. As of January 2024, the company&rsquo;s renters&rsquo; insurance product was available in 18 states.
 
 
 Key customers and partnerships
 
 
 Root had 259,522 policies in force as of September 2023.
 
 
 Root entered into a partnership with Carvana in July 2022, to offer usage-based auto insurance policies on the latter&rsquo;s used-car online platform.
 
 
 In addition, it had also collaborated with other players in the insurance space to optimize and digitize its insurance services.In January 2021, Root partnered with Tractable, a UK-based provider of AI-based solutions, to leverage its AI Subro solution to optimize Root&rsquo;s end-to-end claims process, starting with subrogation, where two insurance carriers negotiate the division of expenses when multiple parties are involved in a claim. It also partnered with CCC Intelligence Solutions in February 2023, to use its first-party casualty solution to streamline and digitize first- and third-party casualty claims through a single digital workflow.
 
 
 Funding and financials
 
 
 In October 2020, Root sold 26.8 million shares in its initial public offering (IPO), raising USD 724.4 million in the process at a valuation of USD 6.8 billion. In 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/8089">
 January 2022
 </a>
 , Root received a five-year term loan of USD 300 million from BlackRock Financial Management (BlackRock) to extend its debt maturity and improve its liquidity position.
 
 
 For the full year of 2022, Root reported total revenue of USD 310.8 million (down 10.0% YoY), while its net losses improved to USD 297.7 million from a loss of USD 521.1 million in 2021. Its gross loss ratio improved to 82.1% from 86.0% in 2021.
 
</div>

Root Insurance

<div>
 
 Hippo is a digital homeowner insurance provider. The company offers its homeowner policies online, with each policy accompanied by a complementary smart home monitoring system that will help identify risks proactively. It provides coverage using a combination of machine learning, satellite imagery, and other public records and actively reviews for any changes to the property overtime.
 
 
 Hippo also provides home insurance to buyers of newly built homes that is directly integrated to the digital mortgage and title process through its Builders business. Further, it launched 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/16051">
 Hippo Builder Insurance Agency (HBIA)
 </a>
 in January 2023, to allow builders of all sizes to partner with HBIA to send leads of homeowners in return for a fee.
 
 
 The company also offers an on-demand homecare and maintenance app (Hippo Homecare) which it launched in 2019 following the acquisition of Sheltr, a home maintenance platform, during the same year. It also launched &ldquo;Book a Pro'' feature within its mobile app in Q4 2022, which allows homeowners based in Texas to connect to home improvement professionals as well as message its Hippo&rsquo;s own home care experts to get advice. Hippo also plans to roll-out this feature to other states in the future.
 
 
 In June 2020, Hippo entered into an agreement to acquire long-time insurance partner Spinnaker Insurance Company, which is a property and casualty insurer registered in all 50 states, for an undisclosed amount. The acquisition was expected to help the company expand its geographical reach. The company&rsquo;s homeowner offering was available in 40 states as of January 2023.
 
 
 Key customers and partnerships
 
 
 Hippo had 332,000 customers as of September 2022, and it claimed nearly 75% of its new customers were Gen B.
 
 
 The company partnered with property and casualty risk intelligence company, 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/17629">
 Opterrix in April 2023
 </a>
 , to leverage its real-time data on severe weather events to identify at-risk policyholders and improve its claims management capabilities.
 
 
 Funding and financials
 
 
 In November 2020, Hippo raised USD 350 million from Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance company. The company expects to use this funding to support its national expansion plans and also evaluate acquisition opportunities to grow inorganically.
 
 
 For FY2022, the company recorded total generated premiums of USD 811.1 million, which was up 33.8% YoY. Its gross loss ratio improved 62 percentage points to 76% during the year, while its net loss improved 10.2% YoY to USD 333.4 million.
 
</div>

Hippo Insurance

Clearcover is a fully digital automobile insurance provider that offers insurance coverage and claims filing using online channels along with other value-added services such as roadside assistance. The company leverages AI and machine learning models to provide personalized pricing to its customers and validate claims. The company states that it can handle 96% of all claims virtually. Clearcover also launched a <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/27767">GenAI-powered claims intake tool</a> to navigate a conversation-driven experience after First Notice of Loss (FNOL) to collect information about an accident. The tool available through its mobile app includes a claims assistant and a real-time customer question resolution feature. It plans to incorporate the tool into its agent portal and website in the future.Clearcover also uses an application programming interface (API) to offer embedded car insurance. This powers <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/21232">Choice, </a>an end-to-end embedded auto insurance solution that allows brands to provide auto insurance policy options from various carriers to their customers.As of January 2024, Clearcover offered its policies in 19 states in the US.&nbsp;For FY2022, the company generated total direct premiums written of USD 140.7 million (up 79% YoY) and recorded USD 61.4 million in net premiums earned. Its net losses amounted to USD 38.7 million for the year, while its loss ratio and combined loss ratios stood at 115% and 158%, respectively.Key customers and partnershipsClearcover partnered with claims management solution vendor Snapsheet (May 2020) to fully digitize its own claims function from First Notification of Losses (FNOLs) to disbursements. It also partnered with ServiceUp (<a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/32888">April 2024</a>), a technology company specializing in automotive repairs, to improve the car repair experience for insurance claims.Moreover, it collaborated with Experian to offer car insurance on the latter’s insurance comparison site (<a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/18045">April 2023</a>). This was part of Clearcover’s strategy to expand its distribution channels.

Clearcover

<div>
 
 Kin offers digital homeowners insurance with personalized policies featuring premiums determined based on an assessment of the property that includes more than 10,000 data points from sources such as property records, government records, and satellite imagery.&nbsp;
 
 
 The company launched its insurance carrier, the Kin Interinsurance Network, in 2019, which operates as a reciprocal exchange (a form of insurance where underwriting profits are shared with customers). As of May 2024, it had a presence in Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Virginia, and Texas.
 
 
 In December 2021, Kin acquired an inactive insurance carrier with licenses in 43 states. This acquisition was part of Kin's plan to expand its operations to most US states.
 
 
 Key customers and partnerships
 
 
 As of February 2024, it served over 115,000 policyholders.
 
 
 The company has partnered with Kangaroo, a smart home tech provider, to offer its customers free home security solutions. Additionally, it has collaborated with Cape Analytics, a property analytics provider that utilizes geospatial imagery for property intelligence, and Snapsheet, a claims management platform provider, to automate their internal processes.
 
 
 Funding and financials
 
 
 Kin Insurance was set to go public through a merger with Omnichannel Acquisition Corp., a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC) in a transaction that valued the company at over USD 1 billion. However, this was terminated in January 2022, citing unfavorable market conditions.&nbsp;&nbsp;
 
 
 In February 2024, the company received USD 15 million 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/26317">
 investment
 </a>
 from Activate Capital, with the funds earmarked to accelerate growth by expanding into new markets and developing new products.
 
 
 Kin Insurance recorded gross written premium (GWP) of USD 344.1 million in 2023 (up 50.7% YoY), and generated operating income of USD 5.0 million compared to an operating loss of USD 11.6 million in the prior year.
 
 
 
</div>

Kin Insurance

Ladder is a startup that provides personalized term life insurance online, with coverage ranging from USD 100,000 to USD 8 million. The company uses multiple publicly available data points to determine a customer’s eligibility and in most cases does not require a medical checkup. Ladder provides a home visit medical test for free if required. Ladder’s dynamic approach to life insurance allows policyholders to increase or decrease insurance coverage based on changing life circumstances. Ladder also provides an application programming interface (API) which allows onboarded partners such as other insurance companies, investment firms, and lenders to issue policies from Ladder digitally. The company is licensed to operate in all 50 states. More than 80% of its customers represented first time insurance buyers.Key customers and partnershipsThe company sells its own life insurance policies in California through its carrier, Ladder Life Insurance Company. In New York policies are underwritten by Allianz Life Insurance, and in all other states by Fidelity Security Life Insurance, Amica Life Insurance Company, Lincoln Financial and USA LIfe Insurance.Ladder had collaborated with many financial service institutions to extend its product offering. It partnered with <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/25889">Envestnet | MoneyGuide</a>, AmeriSave Mortgage, and Halo Investing, to deliver its digital life insurance to customers through the advisors of the latter.Funding and financialsIn October 2021, the company raised USD 100 million in Series D funding co-led by Thomvest Ventures and OMERS Growth Equity, at a valuation of USD 900 million. The new funds will be directed towards further developing its products and expanding its workforce. As of the same date, the company also reported that its revenue grew by over 4x year-over-year (YoY).

Ladder

Startups in the automobile insurance space, predominantly providing usage-based insurance using telematics devices and/or smartphone sensors.

Startups that offer homeowners and renters insurance using artificial intelligence (AI) and smart home devices to issue policies and validate claims.

Startups that provide life insurance through digital channels personalized to an individual’s circumstances and replacing traditional practices, such as medical tests, with data-driven underwriting.

Companies that offer personal line covers for travel and pets through digital channels and use technologies such as flight tracking and online claims processing.

Providers of comparison websites and tools for carriers, agents, and consumers to compare and purchase policies.

Companies that provide personalized health insurance to consumers via digital channels and use technology such as wearable medical devices to monitor health and improve user experience and underwriting.

Companies that offer digital-only insurance for personal belongings (bicycles, mobile phones, laptops, and cameras), providing protection against theft, loss, or damage, with financial reimbursement or replacement.

IoTs used to proactively mitigate risks and offer usage-based insurance

Used for underwriting and claims; infrastructure providers offer AI/ML products to traditional insurers

Uses personal data to underwrite and price personalized policies such as usage-based insurance for vehicles

Limited number of life insurers use genetic/epigenetics to underwrite life insurance

<div>
 
 Sigo Seguros, an auto insurance company aimed at immigrant and lower-income communities, has secured USD 10.5 million in a Series A funding round. Notable investors include Varco Capital and Listen. Other contributors to this round were Angeles Ventures, Flintlock Capital, Zeal Capital, Rise of the Rest, and Fiat Ventures. This funding round brings the total investment in Sigo Seguros to USD 22.6 million.
 Sigo Seguros intends to use these funds to expand their market to Florida and California, adding to their current operations in Texas.
 
</div>

Sigo Seguros

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