Investment Group of Santa Barbara Leads $8M Briza Series A Round

Briza, a commercial insurance-as-a-service API, formally announced the closure of an $8 million Series A funding round.

What Happened: Briza connects underwriters to agencies and financial applications to make insurance instant.

As part of a vision to increase the supply of insurance markets available to insurance retailers, wholesalers, and developers, Briza looked to the Investment Group of Santa Barbara, and its existing investors, for an $8 million raise.

Series A brings Briza’s total funding to date to $11 million. Past funding participants include Briza Chair and FreshBooks founder and Executive Chair Mike McDerment, Sid Sankaran, CEO of SiriusPoint, Alon Neches, former treasurer of AIG, Sharon Ludlow, former CEO of Swiss Re Canada, and Louis Beryl, founder and CEO of Rocketplace.

Why It Matters: Briza’s mission to deliver commercial insurance to the world means empowering developers to create delightful user experiences, alongside allowing insurance APIs to be consumed by broader audiences.

“When an insurer invests the time and capital necessary to build an API, that’s just the beginning," said Ben Munro, co-founder and CEO of Briza. "They must now manage relationships with thousands of developers at retailers, wholesalers, insurance platforms, and small business software vendors. It’s a massive undertaking. A single API from a carrier only gets you that carrier’s appetite; Briza’s API gives developers a whole marketplace of appetites for small commercial insurance.”

Further, the funds will assist the firm in building infrastructure critical to aggregate carrier quote, bind, and payment capabilities.

“By easily translating the quoting, binding, and payment experience, Briza seeks to allow insurance companies rapid, low-cost functionality into adjacent platforms, and likewise enable any brand or merchant to integrate innovative risk and protection services into their digital storefront,” said Rishi Sharma, CTO at Briza.

To learn more about Briza, click here.