America’s 32 million small and medium-sized businesses have had a challenging last two years, with many facing on-again-off-again closures, seesawing demand, and supply-chain disruptions. But pandemic-era belt-tightening also compelled many small businesses to carefully assess their recurring costs, including property and casualty (P&C) insurance. P&C coverage, which includes liability and workers’ compensation, is a required purchase for SMBs and business owners of course want to ensure they’re adequately covered at the best possible price.
That’s why Calibrate Ventures is excited to announce our continued support of Talage, a leading provider of digital distribution software solutions for commercial insurance. Talage is used by carriers, agents, and wholesalers to power the online purchase of workers’ compensation, liability, and property insurance for SMBs in all 50 states. Over 30 carriers, including Acuity, Coterie Insurance, Hiscox, Liberty Mutual, and Travelers, are integrated directly into Talage’s platform, making it easy and transparent for agents to find the best deals for their SMB customers. Calibrate first invested in Talage in 2019, and today we’re announcing our participation in a new $9 million funding led by Merus Capital and also supported by Hallador Financial, Advantage Capital, and Reno Seed Fund. Founded in 2015, Talage’s rapid growth in the past several years has been driven by the insurance industry shift to a digital world. But demand for Talage’s platform surged during the pandemic, with insurance agents and their SMB clients moving the vast majority of their interactions online.
We first met Adam Kiefer, co-founder and CEO of Talage, as he was expanding his product integrations and distribution strategy. We were impressed by his direct experience in the insurance industry and his vision of how to deliver a compelling value proposition to the SMB market. Adam started Talage after a career in the commercial insurance industry, working at companies such as workman’s comp provider Employers and Wells Fargo, where he was responsible for insurance customers. Adam saw how frustrating it was for small businesses to get access to high-quality, transparent, and bindable quotes for the insurance they needed to succeed. So he started Talage to serve SMBs, bringing automation and digitization to an underserved market.
After years of record growth, Talage is now expanding into new types of insurance, including professional liability and cyber insurance, and expanding its suite of agent tools, including new ways to simplify renewals, book rolls, and cross-sell opportunities. Talage’s platform gives users access to more than 30 API-enabled insurance products that dramatically reduce quote times, turning what was a weeks-long process of collecting quotes into something that takes just minutes. SMBs get access to more affordable, higher-quality insurance policies, while agents are able to better serve their customers, extend their books of business, and generate more revenue.
Adam is a founder who truly gets that embracing disruption is the only way established industries can survive. The US insurance industry, valued at over $1 trillion each year, has been slow to adopt automation, mostly due to a vast web of brokers, agents, carriers, and intermediaries that has been doing business the same way for decades. Talage, run by insurance industry veterans and tech experts that have embraced open APIs to build a flexible, robust platform, is helping the insurance industry step confidently into the digital age. We’re thrilled to continue to support such a groundbreaking company and can’t wait to see what Adam and the entire team do next!