(Image source: Gradient website.)

Gradient AI (Cambridge, Mass.), an enterprise software provider of artificial intelligence solutions in the insurance technology space, announced today that it has raised $6 million in a Series A financing led by Forté Ventures (Atlanta) and Sandbox Insurtech Ventures (Chicago). The round also includes participation from Gradient’s existing investor MassMutual Ventures (Boston). The funding will be used to meet demand and drive further growth of the vendors solutions.

Gradient describes its artificial intelligence solutions as helping commercial insurers automate and improve underwriting results, reduce claim costs, and improve operational efficiencies. The Gradient software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform includes a proprietary dataset composed of tens of millions of claims, which is complemented with several economic, health, and litigation datasets, according to the vendor. “This robust aggregation of data provides out-of-the-box claims and underwriting precision for new clients, and it is continuously refined with client-specific data over time,” a Gradient statement says.

“The Gradient platform helps our customers’ claims and underwriting teams make better decisions more efficiently, which allows our customers to write more profitable business, minimize claims, and improve the profitability of their book,” adds Stan Smith, CEO, Gradient.

Gradient says its analytics suite addresses the needs of insurance carriers, managing general agents (MGAs), professional employer organizations (PEOs), third party administrators (TPAs), insurance pools and other insurance professionals with a broad suite of claims and underwriting solutions. The artificial intelligence predictions for claims management, risk ranking, case-level reserving, medical treatment indicators, subrogation, large losses, settlement, fraud, and litigation are boosting productivity, optimizing operations, and improving decision making, the vendor asserts. Gradient says that its platform delivers fully automated integration into customers’ own claims and underwriting platforms via API, thus enabling automated claims workflows and straight-through processing of policy applications.

Catalyzing Change in the Insurance Industry

“Gradient will play a critical role in progressing the widespread adoption of ML-based analytics platforms across commercial insurance over the next several years,” comments Tom Hawkins, founder and Managing Partner at Forte Ventures. “We’re excited to be supporting the Gradient team as it catalyzes change in an industry that, at the end of the day, impacts the health and financial outcomes of millions of Americans.”

“It is clear at this point that carriers, risk pools, TPAs, and PEOs that aren’t implementing artificial intelligence in their claims and underwriting processes will significantly underperform relative to their peers,” comments Chris Zock, managing director of Sandbox Insurtech Ventures.

Aaron Shapiro, Gradient’s CRO and Head of Field Operations (formerly Executive Director at Origami Risk), joined the company in December 2018. “I was impressed by the substantial and immediate ROI delivered by the Gradient platform and its ability to scale to address any size organization,” says Shapiro. “Whether a commercial insurer is looking to implement automated underwriting or deliver decision support within current underwriting workflows, Gradient’s solutions enable data-driven decisions that lead to improved financial performance for our customers, as well as better treatment and outcomes for individuals.”

“We are thrilled to have such a strong syndicate working with Gradient to accelerate the adoption of algorithmic claims management and underwriting across insurance verticals,” comments Eric Emmons, managing director, MassMutual Ventures.

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