HSCM Ventures leads investment in WC underwriter Insurate

HSCM Ventures, the venture capital arm of  Hudson Structured Capital Management, has led a $4.5 million seed round in Insurate, an underwriter that creates workers' compensation solutions to high hazard small/mid-market companies.

Also participating in the round are Foundation Capital, Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, Clocktower Technology Ventures, Sure Ventures, and several angel investors, including independent agents and buyers of work comp.

Insurate's back-tested Safe-Tier Index (STI) uses proprietary data to identify safe businesses and help in pricing insurance. Insurate's solutions are offered in partnership with Key Risk (a Berkley Company), Encova, and several additional leading work comp insurers. Insurate is currently in market, and average policy savings to date have been 24% without applying maximum allowable credits.

"Many small industrial businesses take safety seriously, but they are penalized up to 95% in the pricing of work comp based on perceptions that their work is dangerous," said Joe McIlhon, CEO of Insurate. "We are bringing data intelligence to discern safe from unsafe, which we combine with human intelligence, to bring fair pricing to safety-conscious industrial companies in the $22B high risk segment of the statutory work comp market."

Adrian Jones (pictured), Partner at HSCM Ventures, who joins Insurate’s Board of Directors, added: “The Insurate team is reimagining a large but difficult segment of workers’ compensation using proprietary data and marketing channels. Workers’ compensation insurance is often priced with backwards-looking experience modifiers, which are not statistically credible for companies with few employees in hazardous segments. Insurate has built partnerships with large insurers, data sources, and marketing channels to benefit businesses that take worker safety seriously.”

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