Authentic Insurance Services, a New York-based insurtech startup offering captive programmes, has raised US$11 million in a Series A financing round led by FirstMark Capital. Authentic, led by founder and CEO Cole Riccardi, offers a 'captive-in-a-box' solution that enables software companies, associations, and other communities to quickly establish captive programs for their small business members. Authentic provides business owner policies to gyms, salons, and other ‘Main Street’ businesses with less than US$5 million in annual revenue. The company has partnered with Mindbody, a scheduling and business management platform; Restaurant365, a restaurant management software; theCut, a barber booking app; and PushPress, a gym operating system. To date, the company has sold over 100 policies through its partners and anticipates exceeding 1,000 policies by summer’s end. Commenting on the funding, Riccardi says: “The Authentic team has built an incredible product that will fundamentally change insurance. “We would like to thank our investors, FirstMark, Slow Ventures, and others, for tackling something very challenging with us.” Adam Nelson, partner at Firstmark Capital, states: "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."
