Outmarket AI has raised a $34.5 million Series B led by SignalFire at a $335 million valuation, just months after its previous round. Fika Ventures, Permanent Capital Ventures, TTV Capital and Dash Fund also participated.

The company, founded by CEO Vishal Sankhla, builds AI that handles paperwork and administrative work for commercial insurance agencies and brokers. Read his statement on below:

The Agent Still Runs Insurance

Software has reshaped how insurance is priced and underwritten, but distribution has barely moved. "Ninety-five percent of insurance in the U.S. and worldwide is still sold through [human] agents," Sankhla said, "and when you look at sort of like how the process is today, it's very manual."

That manual work is the target: submissions, certificates, endorsements and the constant document handling between an agency, its clients and carriers.

Growth in a Slow Industry

Outmarket says more than 300 insurance agencies now use the product, including about a quarter of the top 100. The product launched roughly 14 months before this round.

"For insurance, which is typically not a fast-moving industry, it's quite fast growth," Sankhla said.

TechCrunch reported the raise, noting it came only months after the prior round.

Why Agencies Buy

Commercial insurance agencies are people businesses with thin operating leverage: growth usually means hiring more account managers to process more paper. Software that absorbs document work changes that equation directly, which makes the return easy for an agency principal to calculate.

It also explains the pace. Agencies talk to each other, and in a referral-driven industry adoption can move faster than the sector's reputation suggests.

Why It Matters

Insurtech's first wave aimed at replacing incumbents with direct-to-consumer carriers, and most of those companies struggled with the economics of underwriting.

The current wave sells to the incumbents instead. Outmarket raising twice inside a year at a $335 million valuation suggests investors think selling picks and shovels to agents is the better trade.

Source

TechCrunch — "Insurtech Outmarket raises $34.5M just months after prior round"