NYC-based insurance underwriting platform Kalepa raises $14M Series A led by Inspired Capital

Kalepa, an insurance underwriting platform based out of New York, has raised a $14 million Series A funding round led by Inspired Capital, with participation from previous investor IA Ventures. Also participating was Gokul Rajaram of Doordash, Coinbase, and formerly of Google, Jackie Reses, formerly of Square, and Henry Ward of Carta.

Founded by Paul Monasterio and Daniel Hillman, the startup was launched in 2018 aimed at commercial insurance underwriters.

Co-Founder and CEO, Paul Monasterio said: InsureTech has seen a massive evolution over the past decade, but commercial insurance-which supports hard-working business owners and protects their most important assets-has been left behind. We leverage billions of data points and unlock crucial insights in order to bring businesses and insurers a single version of the truth."

Kalepa says its Copilot software automatically learns what the best underwriters are doing, allowing an underwriter to take a more accurate underwriting decision as quickly as possible vs. simply aggregating a lot of data for them. It competes with the legacy MGAs (e.g., RT Specialty, AmWins) as well as new entrants such as Pathpoint in the E&S market.

Penny Pritzker, co-founder at Inspired Capital and former U.S. Secretary of Commerce said: Commercial insurance represents a $1T industry globally and helps 30 million U.S. businesses. Kalepa has brought some of the sharpest minds in understanding risk to this segment of the insurance market."

Veteran insurance player Mario Vitale is also joining Kalepa's Board.