Comeryx has launched as an AI-native managing general agent focused on small business risks and closed a $7.5 mn funding round.
Altai Ventures led the raise, with participation from American Family Ventures, Intact Ventures, Boulder Ventures, Arch Capital Group, and Echelon.
The company targets a structural imbalance in the small commercial market. The segment represents a $100+ bn opportunity, yet brokers and carriers struggle to underwrite these accounts profitably using manual processes.
Comeryx built an automated quote, bind, and issue platform designed to serve small artisan contractors with speed while preserving underwriting discipline.
Comeryx provides services in the Excess & Surplus (E&S) insurance market for small businesses. Founded by industry veterans in insurance, analytics, and technology, Comeryx uses advanced automation and disciplined underwriting to provide smarter coverage for the small business artisan contractor market.
More than 500,000 US artisan contractors generate under $10mn in annual revenue. Traditional carriers often avoid these policies because human-driven underwriting costs exceed the economics of small premiums.
According to Beinsure, expense ratios in low-limit E&S business frequently undermine scalability without automation.
Chief Executive Officer Dax Craig said wholesale and retail agents sidestep smaller policies when underwriting costs outstrip premium size. He said Comeryx built AI-native infrastructure and analytics-based underwriting to make high-volume, low-premium accounts viable.
Wholesale and retail agents often avoid small policies because carriers and MGAs utilize manual underwriting at a cost that is out of line with small premiums
Dax Craig, Co-Founder and CEO of Comeryx
“With Comeryx, we are bringing the AI-native infrastructure and disciplined underwriting necessary to serve this large market with the speed and ease brokers need to be profitable,” said Dax Craig.
The distribution model runs exclusively through E&S-licensed wholesale brokers. Comeryx does not pursue direct distribution. Its zero-touch workflow and data-driven pricing framework aim to convert smaller accounts into repeatable production for wholesale partners.
Investors point to Craig’s background as a factor in the raise. He previously co-founded Pie Insurance and Valen Analytics.
Altai Ventures Managing Partner Oleg Ilichev said combining analytics and insurance execution creates operating efficiency for the wholesale channel. American Family Ventures Principal Mike Mansell said the E&S small business market has long needed a technology-led underwriting model without sacrificing risk rigor.
“CEO and Co-Founder Dax Craig is a serial entrepreneur with a proven track record in insurance having built cutting-edge companies Pie Insurance and Valen Analytics,” said Oleg Ilichev, Managing Partner at Altai Ventures. “His background of combining technology and analytics in insurance provides Comeryx a unique advantage in delivering the efficiency that the wholesale market demands.”
The founding team includes Elad Kolet as chief technology officer, Matt Frazier leading analytics and operations, and Melissa Bernard as founding underwriter.
Bernard brings nearly three decades of specialty underwriting experience across E&S platforms.
Comeryx is forming underwriting and wholesale partnerships and expects to issue its first policies later in 2026. The company positions itself as a data-first MGA built for scale inside the E&S ecosystem rather than outside it.
