LOOP Raises $3.25M Seed Round To Build More Inclusive Car Insurance

AUSTIN, TX, Jan. 12th, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Loop, a B-Corp auto insurance MGA that leverages AI, big data, and telematics to create more fairly priced insurance products, announced today it has closed a $3.25M seed round led by Freestyle VC, with participation from Blue Fog Capital, Fontinalis Capital Partners, Concrete Rose, Uprising Ventures, and Backstage Capital. Angel investors including Kristen Dickey, Steve Schlafman, Songe LaRon, Craig J. Lewis, Gerard Adams, and Joshua Dorkin also participated.

The auto insurance industry currently relies heavily on demographic factors like credit score, education level, and zip code to price customers, which Loop argues perpetuate structural bias against vulnerable communities. Loop instead has developed a proprietary and AI-based approach to pricing that measures road safety and their customers driving behavior on those roads, which in turn prices customers more equitably.

“The technology and data to assess risk more dynamically have long since been available, but insurers have been slow to adapt.”

said Carey Anne Nadeau, Cofounder and Co-CEO of Loop.

“We believe there’s a large market opportunity in pricing people more fairly and building a community-first brand in the auto insurance space.”

added John Henry, Cofounder and Co-CEO of LOOP.

Nadeau and Henry, each with distinct entrepreneurial backgrounds, teamed up to start Loop in July 2020 after the George Floyd events inspired them to take on more meaningful challenges. 

Nadeau brings a highly technical expertise, as an MIT-trained statistician and city planner, former researcher at the Brookings Institution, and Founder/CEO of the open data and predictive-modeling company Ometry. Henry brings a deep media and mission-driven expertise, as a Forbes 30 Under 30 recognized social entrepreneur, cofounder of the diversity-focused VC firm Harlem Capital, Executive Producer and Host of HUSTLE on VICE TV, and Founder/CEO of Mobile City, which he led through its acquisition.

"Carey Anne and John are top-decile founders taking on a once-in-a-generation opportunity to transform an industry that touches so many lives.”

said Dave Samuel, Founder and Managing Partner at Freestyle.VC who is himself a 3x Silicon Valley veteran founder.

“From the first time I met them, I knew this was a special team with a highly defensible approach to a worthwhile problem. We couldn’t be more excited to play a small part in the Loop journey.”

The Auto Insurance industry is a $256 Bn annual market, of which usage-based insurance (UBI) programs like Loop are the fastest growing segment. The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated the demand for UBI among consumers, with more than 30% of new policies sold today featuring telematics features of some kind. As more state legislators do away with criteria like credit score, Loop offers an alternative methodology that measures customers driving behaviors more directly.