Insurance agents spend hours handling paperwork and entering customer information over the phone. A new early stage startup, InsurGrid, has developed a software solution to ease the process and make it easier for agents to serve existing customers – and secure new ones.

InsurGrid provides agents with a personalized platform to collect information from clients, such as date of birth, driver’s license information, and police statement. This platform helps agents avoid sitting on long calls or dealing with back-to-back emails, and instead gives them a place to understand how all of their different customers are performing. It starts with asset and damage management.

The startup integrates with 85 insurance companies, serving as a software layer instead of a provider. Using the InsurGrid platform, insurers can ask customers to upload information and within seconds, be registered as a policyholder. It basically turns into a living Rolodex that insurers can use to access account information and offer quotes at a faster rate.

There is a monetary benefit to providing better service. Eden Insurance, a client of InsurGrid, said people who submit information through the platform converted at an 82% higher rate than those who do not. Jeremy Eden, the owner of the Eden Insurance agency, said they were able to show consumers that his plan was $ 300 cheaper than his current rate.

At the heart of InsurGrid is a bet from the founding team that legacy insurance agents aren’t going anywhere. Co-founder / CEO Chase Beach pointed out that the majority of the $ 684 billion in annual property and casualty insurance premiums in the United States is distributed by approximately 800,000 agents working at 16,000 brokerage firms. So far, InsurGrid works with more than 150 of these agencies.

When asked if InsurGrid has ever planned to offer its own insurance, like insurtech giants Hippo, Lemonade and Root, Beach said he was only working to innovate around the sales process for the moment. He said these large companies, which recently went public or are considering doing so, still rely on agents to be successful.

“Instead of replacing the insurance agent, what if we give them the same level of technology as a hippo or a large transporter,” Beach said. “And provide them with the digital experiences so they can compete in 2021.”

Over time, he sees insurance agents taking on the same role as financial advisors or real estate agents: “very involved in the process because they are that expert”.

Other startups that have popped into this space include Gabi, Trellis, and Canopy Connect. The differentiator, according to the team, is that Beach comes from a 144-year-old insurance heritage, which gives it key insights into how to effectively and successfully sell to agents. It starts with sales, but expect InsurGrid to spread to other parts of the insurance process as well.

To help them compete with new and old startups, InsurGrid recently raised $ 1.3 million in pre-seed funding to help it achieve its goal of being “the underdog for the underdogs,” said Beach. Investors include Engineering Capital, Hustle Fund, Vess Capital, Sahil Lavingia, and Trevor Kienzle.

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