Relay secures Drive Capital seed financing as it builds 'smarter, faster, leaner solution'

Relay Platform, the global property and casualty (P&C) quote-bind-issue portal provider, has raised $5.2 million in seed financing.

The round was led by Drive Capital, a Columbus-based venture capital firm, with participation from Highline Beta, the Canadian venture capital firm that incubated Relay.

Relay completed a pre-seed simple agreement for future equity (SAFE) round in January 2020, for a total of $8.25 million in financing to date.

Relay accelerates the insurance transaction and automates the client proposal for brokers by combining quotes from carriers, MGA-MGUs, and reinsurers from any source and in any format. Quotes can originate from human underwriters or from automated, instant-quoting systems. Relay delivers them as dynamic, fully customisable, client-ready proposal documents.

Powered by machine learning, it points out the policies and prices most likely to be accepted by clients and prospects, as well as cross-selling and up-selling opportunities.

Originating in reinsurance, it supports both high-ticket and high-volume placements across a wide range of industry participants in all commercial lines.

Relay’s white label solution is used by retail and wholesale brokers and cedents across commercial lines, allowing them to secure competitive quotes in hardening markets, boosting quote-to-bind ratios and renewal rates.

Greg Boutin, Relay’s chief executive officer, said: “This new round will enable us to better serve the retail and wholesale brokerages, MGA and MGUs, carriers, and reinsurers whom we already count as clients and users in the US, UK, Canada, and the Middle East. We will extend our distribution and deliver on our promise of a smarter, faster, leaner solution that unbolts game-changing results for our ecosystem partners.”

Chris Olsen, co-founder and partner at Drive Capital, argued COVID-19 has triggered a fundamental shift in behaviors and expectations from brokers and their clients, creating an urgent need for a user-centric placement solution.

“With digital solutions rapidly reinventing how insurance and reinsurance are sourced and sold, a unique opportunity opened up for a universal, digital placement solution that augments the in-depth experience of industry professionals while addressing the significant gap in business insurance coverage,” he said.

Since Drive's founding in 2012 by former Sequoia Capital partners Chris Olsen and Mark Kvamme, it has raised $1 billion of funds to invest in startups solving important problems in large markets. It has previously invested in Root Insurance, Circulo and Battleface.

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