Novella, an AI-powered wholesale insurance broker, raised $21 mn to hire brokers, expand its proprietary AI platform, and open regional offices across the U.S. The company said the funding will support its plan to help brokers become higher-output producers.
The New York-based firm also operates a research and development facility in Tel Aviv, Israel. In 2026, Novella opened offices in Miami, Florida, and Houston, Texas, with more U.S. locations planned, including southern California in Q2.
Founder and CEO Max Kane said Novella’s AI agents handle placement, binding, form comparison, policy review, subjectivity collection, inspections, billing, endorsements, renewals, and other back-office tasks. He said the setup lets producers focus their time on client relationships and book growth.
Kane said Novella believes the combination of strong producers and advanced AI will define the next stage of wholesale broking. In his view, AI will not replace insurance producers, but it will make the best ones more productive.
The company’s thesis is that relationship-driven insurance work still needs people. Novella wants to automate the administrative work around brokers rather than remove the broker from the process.
Kane said he wants Novella to become a top-five U.S. wholesale Excess and Surplus broker within the decade. The target is $10 bn of premium.
“We believe pairing world-class producers with world-class AI is the recipe for success,” said Mr. Kane. “AI will make the best producers far better at their job, enabling them to better serve clients and focus on building bigger, more profitable books of business.”
Novella is licensed in all 50 U.S. states. It has been appointed by nearly 100 specialty carriers and MGAs to broker P&C insurance business.
More than 3,500 retail agencies are currently appointed and sending business to the company. That gives Novella a broad distribution base as it grows its E&S platform.
Novella was founded in 2024 by Kane, who spent almost four years at Lemonade, along with CTO Michael Tsibelman and Head of Brokerage Alex Broome.
Tsibelman has led software teams at Microsoft, Gigya, and DoControl, while Broome has held senior brokerage roles at The Baldwin Group and ReShield.
The funding round was led by Brewer Lane Ventures. Other investors included Box Group, Crystal Venture Partners, SV Angel, Avid Ventures, Verissimo Ventures, Blank Ventures, and global insurer Arch.
Novella also participated in the Lloyd’s Lab startup programme at Lloyd’s. The company is using that insurance market access alongside its U.S. expansion plans.
Chris Downer, general partner at Brewer Lane Ventures, said wholesale broking remains built around human relationships. He said Novella helps producers stay close to retail brokers while using AI to reduce the operational drag around specialty insurance placement.
“Wholesale broking, at heart, is about human relationships. Our producers need to be close to our retail brokers, so we will be expanding strategically across the country over the coming years. Novella is the first wholesaler to effectively blend AI and talent,” said Chris Downer, General Partner at Brewer Lane Ventures.
Wholesalers spend years building relationships. Novella makes them better at it – that’s why top brokers are joining the team, and how they’re changing specialty insurance.
Novella is the first AI native insurance wholesaler protecting some of the largest, most complicated physical assets in the world. Novella’s specialty AI agents are trained to help insurance brokers find coverage for their hardest to place customers and underwriters bind more accounts.
