Ascend, which claims to be “the first modern insurance payments platform”, has raised $30 million in a Series A equity funding round, bringing its total funding raised to $39 million.
It has also secured a $250 million lending commitment to finance insurance premium loans through its platform facilitated by Hudson Structured Capital Management.
Ascend – “the first modern insurance payments platform” – raises $30m in Series A
The Series A funding was led by Index Ventures with participation from new investors such as Distributed Ventures and its anchor limited partner NFP, HSCM Bermuda, XYZ Ventures, and a series of strategic angel investors.
Also participating were existing investors First Round Capital, Susa Ventures, and FirstMark Capital.
“We’ve seen an enormous surge in demand over the last six months since we launched,” says Praveen Chekuri, co-CEO and co-founder of Ascend.
“Our payment software greatly reduces purchase friction for customers buying insurance while simultaneously reducing or eliminating traditionally labour-intensive operational processes for brokerages, MGAs, and carriers.”
Ascend’s payments APIs and no-code products automate insurance payments end-to-end, the vendor states, from an online point of sale with buy now, pay later (BNPL) financing to the distribution of commissions and carrier payables.
The funding will be used to hire dozens of new team members. The company highlights that half of its employees are “from groups typically underrepresented in tech”.
Based in New York, Ascend operates nationwide, working with the likes of Vouch, Cowbell, Newfront, Boost Insurance, NFP, LuckyTruck, Rogue Risk, Portal Insurance, and Riskwell.
