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Slingshot Insurance, an AI-native insurer focused on embedded insurance, has emerged from stealth with $27 mn in seed financing co-led by Rally Ventures and Skyward Group. The oversubscribed funding round also attracted several property and casualty (P&C) insurance industry veterans, including Jim Hays, who will join the company’s board of directors.
The company was co-founded by Rally Ventures and Ethan Genteman, former Chief Actuarial Officer at Palomar Holdings, to address the operational and financial requirements of embedded insurance products.
- Slingshot Insurance emerged from stealth with $27 mn in oversubscribed seed financing co-led by Rally Ventures and Skyward Group.
- The company uses AI-driven automation and integrated APIs to reduce administrative costs and accelerate embedded insurance product launches.
- Vertical Insure, an embedded insurance MGA serving more than 750,000 customers with an average premium of $25, has joined as an early customer and design partner.
Industry forecasts suggest embedded insurance could increase from approximately 3% of global P&C premiums today to nearly 20% over the next decade, growing considerably faster than the broader insurance market.
Slingshot is targeting industry-specific software platforms, managing general agents (MGAs) and insurance distributors seeking to develop and distribute products through embedded channels.
Its infrastructure combines technology and insurance capacity to support the launch and expansion of products across niche markets, including amateur sports, travel, gig work and independent employment.
AI-native insurance infrastructure targets lower-cost policy administration
Slingshot’s operating model focuses on higher-frequency, lower-severity insurance risks, often associated with relatively small premiums. Such policies can be difficult to administer economically through conventional carrier infrastructure because legacy systems and operating processes typically carry substantial fixed costs.
Traditional carrier infrastructure wasn’t built for embedded insurance’s risk and economic model. Embedded products tend to be higher-frequency, lower-severity risks, often with smaller premiums, while incumbent systems and operating models carry fixed costs designed for a much different market.
Ethan Genteman, co-founder and CEO of Slingshot
“Our infrastructure changes those economics by dramatically lowering the cost of administering policies and accessing capital. That makes products viable that historically were not, creating value for customers and capital providers while opening up entirely new embedded insurance opportunities,” said Ethan Genteman.
The company’s AI-native platform is designed to replace fragmented processes involving spreadsheets, email and disconnected legacy systems with a single integrated operating environment.
Embedded insurance products can generate substantial transaction volumes and complex data requirements. Slingshot uses AI to automate workflows and application programming interfaces (APIs) to connect MGAs, distribution platforms and capital providers.
According to the company, the integrated architecture is intended to reduce administrative expenses while supporting profitable operations as policy volumes increase. It also provides auditable, reconcilable and explainable decisions, giving MGAs and insurance capital providers greater visibility into operational activity and underwriting-related processes.
Rally Ventures, which co-founded Slingshot alongside Genteman, identified embedded insurance as an emerging opportunity for technology-enabled insurance infrastructure.
“The real growth opportunity in insurance today is in the small, everyday policy sold right at checkout. We built Slingshot to provide MGAs and others serving the embedded market with the infrastructure to launch new products at a speed that simply has not been possible before,” said Justin Kaufenberg, managing director at Rally Ventures.
Vertical Insure joins Slingshot as early customer and design partner
Vertical Insure, an embedded insurance MGA serving more than 750,000 customers at an average premium of $25, has signed on as an early customer and design partner.
The company sought faster, technology-enabled support from insurance carriers to improve its ability to introduce products designed for specific customer requirements.
For embedded insurance distributors, developing a product can be considerably faster than securing the carrier approvals and delegated underwriting authority needed to bring it to market. Slingshot aims to address that operational constraint through integrated infrastructure and automated processes.
“We can design the products our customers need almost overnight, but the industry is highly regulated, and we need delegated authority just to write and distribute what we’ve built. The antiquated approval process on the carrier-side slows everything down. Our business really comes down to technology and good data – traditionally, carriers haven’t had either, and that’s exactly what Slingshot brings to the table,” said Brock Noland, co-founder and CEO of Vertical Insure.
The partnership provides Slingshot with an early commercial application for its infrastructure in a market characterised by relatively small individual premiums and substantial transaction volumes.
Through its platform, the company intends to support MGAs and distributors developing products for travel, amateur sports, gig workers and other specialised markets where conventional insurance administration costs have historically limited product viability.
Slingshot’s stated approach combines AI-based workflow automation, connectivity with distribution partners and access to insurance capacity, with the objective of making smaller embedded insurance products economically sustainable for distributors and capital providers.
