Founded in 2022, Authentic enables SaaS platforms, associations, and other communities to establish their own captive insurance programs for small business coverage. With just “one line of code,” partners can introduce their own insurance products, while Authentic handles underwriting, claims management, and oversees capital markets and reinsurance, taking a fee for these services. Authentic serves businesses with less than $5 million in annual revenue.
The company is led by CEO Cole Riccardi. In a social media post announcing the news, Riccardi said: “The Authentic team has built an incredible product that will fundamentally change insurance. We’d like to thank our investors (FirstMark, Slow Ventures, and others mentioned below) for tackling something very challenging with us. We’d like to thank our partner platforms for seeing the vision and understanding the benefits to users, it will soon be obvious to everyone. I’d personally like to thank my teammates for their heroic effort in pushing our product and company forward every single day.”
Authentic launched its product last September and has acquired more than 10 customers including Mindbody, Restaurant365 and theCut that serve approximately one million small businesses. To date, Authentic has sold more than 100 policies through its partners and expects to sell 1000+ by the end of the summer.
Authentic intends to use the funding to continue expanding its team and also plan to add new offerings to its product such as workers compensation, health insurance products and benefits.
Adam Nelson, Partner at Firstmark Capital commented: “The way commercial insurance is bought and sold has largely remained unchanged since it first came into existence over 50 years ago. Authentic is the first company to virtually eliminate the need for traditional carriers. With a platform approach that enables partners to roll out their own new insurance offerings, it’s been incredible to watch as millions of businesses instantly gain access to a better insurance model on day one.”
