User:Jonmarquez/PolicyGenius

"" PolicyGenius ""

PolicyGenius, based in New York, was founded in 2013 by two former McKinsey consultants, Jennifer Fitzgerald and Francois de Lame, who saw industry a gap in the insurance industry and dedicated themselves to shifting the industry online and into the hands of the consumer. Through its highly tailored Insurance Checkup™, which guides users through a five-minute Q&A to develop a personalized, in-depth review of all their insurance needs based on their financial and family situations.

PolicyGenius clients have access to tailored advice through the company’s unbiased and accurate insurance quoting platform. The platform provides personalized quotes, powered by the company’s rules-based engine for underwriting and needs mapping, as well as side-by-side comparison of insurance policies from dozens of the country’s top insurance providers.

PolicyGenius aims to educate and insure America’s underinsured to help consumers safeguard against financial pitfalls that frequently lead to bankruptcy and foreclosures. While 132 million Americans rely on life insurance to protect their financial security, the country is still facing a $20 trillion life insurance gap due to four key issues: lack of insurance understanding, overestimating the cost of insurance, lack of access based on an aging broker workforce and lack of online tools and an economic shift to a freelance workforce. According to a survey by the Federal Reserve, 47 percent of households couldn’t cover an emergency expense of $400. Additionally, 62 percent of all personal bankruptcies were attributed to medical costs according to a Harvard study. Although many of these personal hardships could have been avoided with proper insurance, only 44% of individual American households have life insurance.

Insurance tech companies have made a big splash for their efforts to disrupt the insurance industry recently. CB Insights claims insurance insurance tech companies have raised $2.12B between 2010 and 2015 to tackle this issue. PolicyGenius broke out as a the leading consumer insurance tech company due to its instant, accurate online quoting and smart digital advice tools to solve the obstacles created by America's outdated insurance industry.

History
PolicyGenius officially launched in July 2014 by co-founders Jennifer Fitzgerald and Francois de Lame. Leveraging their multi-product platform, consumers are able to review unbiased advice and confidently research and compare quotes for life, long-term disability, renters and pet insurance.

As McKinsey consultants, Fitzgerald and de Lame, advised the top insurance companies on growth and marketing. They quickly noticed a pattern: all of the companies struggled with how to engage online with self-directed consumers. So, in 2013 they left McKinsey to solve the problem themselves.

Funding
PolicyGenius was part of the FirstGrowth Winter 2013 batch. In July 2014, PolicyGenius announced the completion of a seed round with investors Brendan Wallace, Paul Arnold, and Pen King.

The company raised its Series A in June 2015, about a year after graduating FirstGrowth. The $5.3 million round included investments from Karlin Ventures, Susa Ventures, MassMutual, Transamerica and AXA. The round was aimed to expand marketing efforts and target new channels.

The company raised a $15 million Series B announced on January 14, 2016 from returning investors Karlin Ventures and Susa Ventures, and new investor [|Revolution Ventures] led by Steve Case former CEO of AOL.