BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Gradient AI, the leading enterprise software provider of artificial intelligence solutions in the insurance technology space, announced today that it has raised $20.0 million in a Series B financing led by American Family Ventures with participation from principals from Stone Point Capital, and BSC Capital as well as existing investors MassMutual Ventures, Sandbox Insurtech Ventures and Forte Ventures.
This infusion of additional capital allows Gradient to expand its product offerings, accelerate its customer acquisition plans, and expand its Board of Directors with the addition of Kyle Beatty, Managing Director at American Family Ventures. Kyle brings deep domain and investing expertise in insurtech, data analytics, and enterprise software platforms, including prior leadership and product positions at Verisk Analytics, Willis Towers Watson, and Risk Management Solutions.
Gradient’s artificial intelligence solutions help commercial insurers automate and improve underwriting results, reduce claim costs, and improve operational efficiencies. The Gradient software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform boasts a proprietary dataset comprised of tens of millions of claims, which is complemented with several economic, health, and litigation datasets. 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.
“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,” said Gradient’s CEO Stan Smith.
Gradient’s 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. Gradient’s 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.
“We believe that the insurance industry is undergoing a transformation that leverages data science to improve the quality, speed, and cost of decisions across all parts of the value chain,” said Kyle Beatty, American Family Ventures. “Gradient AI’s technology and its deep and diverse proprietary data position the company to enable all lines of insurance to introduce step-change improvements in their processes.”
“Proactive, data driven risk management has become table-stakes across a variety of industries,” commented Tim Scallen, Managing Partner at BSC Capital. “Gradient’s leading technologies are well suited not only for their core market of workers comp, but also for adjacent markets such as healthcare, which has historically taken a reactive, paper-based approach to managing risk and controlling costs. Gradient’s solutions empower health insurers, providers, and employers to make proactive decisions about care management, ultimately reducing cost and improving outcomes.”
“Gradient AI has the potential to revolutionize the insurance industry. While insurance companies can certainly build predictive models on their own, some of the largest carriers now recognize Gradient AI’s ability to greatly augment their internal capabilities. By leveraging the company’s knowledge, leading-edge modeling techniques, and large external datasets to tackle practical business challenges, Gradient AI’s clients are now accelerating profitable growth. This new round of funding allows us to better meet the demand for our products,” said Naimish Patel, Chief Product Officer, Gradient AI.
“With this next round of funding, we can accelerate our aggressive hiring plan so that we can continue to expand our solution set with more models in more insurance lines of business,” said Jeff Snider, General Manager, Gradient AI. “We’re constantly looking to add the most qualified and most creative data scientists, data engineers, software engineers and others who are passionate about revolutionizing the insurance industry with even more accurate artificial intelligence-driven capabilities on both the underwriting and claims sides.”
Gradient AI was founded in order to address the need for state-of-the-art Artificial Intelligence (AI) solutions designed specifically for the trillion-dollar insurance industry. AI has emerged as a disruptive force revolutionizing the way insurance professionals achieve their objectives, and Gradient is leading that charge. Our solutions include software and models utilized by many of the world’s most recognized insurance carriers, MGAs, TPAs, pools, PEOs, and more. Gradient’s stellar client base continues to grow rapidly. Gradient’s team of expert data scientists and insurance technology experts have an exceptional history of building successful insurance technology companies, with the most satisfied customers in the industry. At Gradient, we focus exclusively on delivering measurable results for our clients. To learn more about Gradient AI, please visit: https://www.gradientai.com/.
About American Family Ventures
American Family Ventures is a venture capital firm focused on insurance innovation. Founded in 2013, AFV invests in early-stage startups that are redefining the future of the insurance industry. AFV aims to help create category-leading companies through minority equity positions, active partnership and collaboration, an extensive Insurtech network, and a comprehensive platform of value-add programs. To learn more, visit https://www.amfamventures.com/
About Bailey Southwell
BSC Capital Partners (“BSCCP”), part of the Bailey Southwell & Co. merchant banking platform, is a Nashville based private equity fund making minority investments in growth and late-stage healthcare and technology companies. BSCCP supports strong management teams that have built scalable platforms by providing flexible capital, strategic insights, and access to one of the most diverse networks of industry experts. For more information see: https://www.baileysouthwell.com/
About MassMutual Ventures
MassMutual Ventures (MMV) is the corporate venture capital group of MassMutual, a Fortune 500 mutual company providing retirement, insurance, and planning services since 1851. MMV creates financial return by partnering with enterprise software and financial technology companies and leads or joins investment syndicates in companies that are poised to create significant enterprise value through technological differentiation and focused execution. Today, MMV manages $250M with offices in Boston, London, and Singapore. Learn more at www.massmutualventures.com.
About Sandbox Insurtech Ventures
Sandbox Insurtech Ventures is an experienced venture investor that unites innovative insurance companies in a fund syndicate model, invests in promising technology start-ups, and drives collaboration between incumbents and insurtechs. The fund team takes a global perspective on insurance innovation and, through investments in best-in-class insurtech start-ups, provides both attractive financial returns and strategic advantages for investors. Sandbox Insurtech Ventures is part of Sandbox Industries, an established venture capital firm that manages industry-specific funds. Learn more at www.sbxinsurtech.com.
About Forte Ventures
With offices in Atlanta and Silicon Valley, Forte Ventures is a multi-stage venture capital firm that collaborates and co-invests with corporate strategic partners in technology companies across diversified industry sectors throughout North America. Focus areas include IT, Mobility, InsurTech, FinTech, Tech-enabled Services, IoT and Industrial Technology. Initial investments typically range from $2 million to $5 million and include participation from leading corporate strategic partners and co-investors. For more information visit: https://www.forteventures.com
