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Federato’s $100 million Series D round, led by Growth Equity at Goldman Sachs Alternatives (New York), stands out in a property/casualty InsurTech market that has seen very few pure-play software investments of this scale. But for Will Ross, co-founder and CEO of the San Francisco based company, the size of the round is less significant than what it represents.
“What we observed in the marketplace over the last 18 months was a considerable amount of acceleration in demand,” Ross says. “This round represents investor recognition of that momentum. It’s really about energizing further and accelerating what we were already doing. There’s no big pivot here.”
Founded in 2020 out of Stanford University and headquartered in San Francisco, Federato presents itself not as a point solution but as an AI-native platform built around underwriting intelligence—a function historically at the center of insurance outcomes, yet often underserved by traditional systems.
Will Ross, Co-Founder and CEO, Federato.
While the company has historically avoided disclosing hard customer counts or exact revenue figures, Ross confirms that Federato now operates at significant scale, with dozens of carrier and MGA customers, thousands of daily users, and revenue measured in the tens of millions of dollars.
“We’ve seen at least threefold growth in our daily active user population in the last year alone,” he says. “There aren’t many companies in this revenue range growing at this multiple.”
From Underwriting to the Core
Federato’s strategy starts with underwriting decisions—how risk is selected, priced, and aligned to portfolio strategy—and expands from there. The company’s platform emphasizes portfolio awareness, appetite alignment, and consistent, data-driven decisioning at scale. That foundation, Ross argues, has enabled Federato to move beyond being viewed as an enhancement layer and toward taking on a more central platform role.
In more than half of its customer base, Ross says Federato now functions as the effective core system. He cites QBE’s North American business as one example, where the organization has gradually replaced a Majesco footprint with Federato over a multi-year period.
That migration has been incremental, not disruptive.
“Most organizations are used to five- to seven-year core implementations just to bring a Guidewire, Duck Creek, or Majesco online,” Ross says. “We’re able to start delivering underwriting outcomes in the first six months and then move organizations off legacy systems over a two- to three-year period.”
This gradual shift—combined with faster time to value—is central to Federato’s differentiation from what Ross regularly refers to as the “old core.”
An Architecture Built for AI
In Ross’ view, traditional core systems reflect technologies and organizational structures of another era, often shaped by acquisition strategies that resulted in layered, loosely-integrated platforms.
“If you look at the old core, you’re talking about platforms averaging 30-plus years in age, built through dozens of acquisitions. These technologies weren’t designed to support true agentic AI—which depends on tools and context,” he explains. “Those systems either don’t have the APIs needed, or the underlying data models are too brittle and too customized customer by customer.”
Federato, by contrast, was designed as an integrated, AI-native environment from the outset. Ross compares the experience to the seamless interaction among devices in a unified ecosystem—rather than a collection of disconnected applications.
“For the last two decades, insurers went to a new ‘core’ hoping to break down silos. Instead, they often ended up with more—just under a single brand name,” he says. “We represent an opportunity to actually move past that.”
Agentic AI and Shifting Expectations
Although Federato has worked with agent-based systems from its earliest days, Ross notes that understanding of “agentic AI” has expanded rapidly in the last year.
“This time last year I could use the word ‘agentic’ and people wouldn’t recognize it. Now it’s crystal clear what an AI system with agency can do,” he notes. “This shift—in perception and in capability—matters. It’s the first thing since the web browser that executives can actually use themselves in everyday life.”
According to Ross, that familiarity has created a new baseline of expectation inside organizations.
“Executives today use AI every day. What they intuitively expect enterprise systems to do is simply not what they’re getting from legacy platforms,” Ross continues. “That gap is driving real change.”
Goldman Sachs Alternatives, in an official statement, highlighted this same differentiation, pointing to what it described as a “step change in ROI and efficiency compared to prior generations of core systems.”
Global Growth and Expanded Scope
Federato currently supports business across North America, Latin America, Europe, and parts of the Middle East, with London acting as a key hub through ties to Lloyd’s and other international markets.
William Steenbergen, Co-Founder and CTO, Federato.
“London has been our epicenter for global engagement,” Ross says, “and now we’ll start putting feet on the ground in more of the regions where we’re already seeing traction.”
He indicates the new capital will support three primary areas: continued expansion in North America across property/casualty lines, increased presence in international markets—particularly those connected to London—and broader product expansion within the existing Federato platform.
“It’s more of the same, just faster and at larger scale,” Ross says. “Over the next eighteen months, the platform will look more expansive and more central to what our customers do.”
A Statement of Intent
Beyond product and geography, the Series D represents a strategic message to the market: Federato intends to remain an independent platform.
“For the market, this is a clear signal that Federato will remain an independent platform player,” Ross says. “We’re not aiming to become another acquisition slide in the deck of an old core company. We want to build a generational business.”
For insurers accustomed to a landscape dominated by consolidation, that distinction matters. Confidence in the long-term stability and direction of technology partners often plays as large a role as product functionality.
“When customers choose Federato, they do so because they believe the platform will continue to improve,” Ross concludes. “This funding gives them confidence that we’re here for the long term—stable, independent, and built for the AI era.”
“Insurance serves society,” Ross adds. “If we can make it more efficient, more equitable, and more intelligent, that’s what this work is really about.”
Federato Raises $100 Million to Accelerate AI-Driven Insurance Platform