(Image source: Young Alfred homepage.)
Young Alfred, a New York-based startup home insurance shopping platform, has announced the closing of a $10 million funding round led by Gradient Ventures (Palo Alto, Calif.), Google’s AI-focused venture fund. Seed round investors Pear Ventures (Palo Alto), ERA (New York), and Newfund Capital (Paris) also participated in this round. Zach Bratun-Glennon, Partner at Gradient Ventures will be joining Young Alfred’s board.
Jason Christiansen, Co-Founder, Young Alfred.
Co-Founders Jason Christiansen and David Stasie launched Young Alfred while attending Wharton Business School. With their experience in hedge funds and private equity, they were surprised by the small amount of data available to consumers during the home insurance purchasing process. The founders say they created Young Alfred to empower homeowners with the data to compare and purchase coverage online by highlighting the fine print under each policy form. As a licensed insurance agency in all 50 states, and with direct relationships to over 30 insurance carriers, Young Alfred vaunts expertise on home insurance for a broad range of geographies and home types.
The company reports that it has increased sales by a factor of 20 during the last 18 months and has garnered attention from industry observers, according to Stasie. “We have received a lot of inbound demand from fintechs and large players in the real estate industry looking for a seamless online home insurance shopping solution, which does not currently exist in the market,” he says.
The company says it will use the new capital to hire engineering, sales and business development talent, and scale its marketing efforts to bring the best-in-class home insurance shopping experience to both homeowners and partners.
“With new resources that Gradient brings to the table, Young Alfred is on track to release a Stripe-like API for partners looking to add P&C to their suite of consumer product offerings. We’re on a mission to unlock access to home insurance for everyone in America,” comments Christiansen.
Zach Bratun-Glennon, Partner, Gradient Ventures.
The founders describe Young Alfred as built to connect insurance carriers to the digital-savvy shopper. While online insurance forms are nothing new, allowing homeowners to compare and bind coverage without a phone call is uncharted territory, they assert. The company receives applications directly online, but it retains licensed agents on staff to provide professional advice when needed.
Fitting with Insurance Carriers’ Goals
“Young Alfred matches consumers to the insurance best-suited to their personal needs in minutes,” comments Bratun-Glennon. “Utilizing data, integrations and machine learning, the company optimizes the customer experience and finds the best results. This fits with insurance carriers’ goals because each carrier has different priorities for the policies and risks that they want to underwrite.”
Hippo Insurance Raises $100 Million in Series D Funding Round Led by Bond