Welcome, Sixfold!
perspectives / Portfolio

Welcome, Sixfold!

AI-assisted insurance underwriting.

Laura Rowson, Nowi Kallen, and Kevin Wu
June 5, 2024
  • Founders: Alex Schmelkin, Jane Tran, and Brian Moseley
  • Sector: GenAI, Insurance
  • Location: New York, NY

The Opportunity

Insurance underwriters today have a “front door” problem: with limited capacity, they’re typically only able to process ~10% of the submissions they receive from brokers. Capacity is restricted by workflows that are largely manual, and that require underwriters to aggregate unstructured and disjointed data sources before applying a risk assessment framework. Few software tools currently exist to automate the risk assessment process and support underwriters in their decisioning, leaving a large number of submissions unreviewed. The result is significantly less revenue for insurers.

The Solution

Sixfold leverages generative AI to accelerate the underwriting process. The company’s proprietary engine ingests broker submissions and triages them against the carrier’s underwriting manual to intelligently prioritize and route submissions. Sixfold combines submission data with third-party and proprietary data sources (all previously requiring a human to synthesize) to generate a risk score and recommendation to support the underwriter’s decision.

Sixfold accelerates the speed at which carriers can process submissions, increasing the volume of gross written premiums per underwriter by more than 3x. By increasing the volume of submissions that an underwriting team can process, Sixfold enables carriers to prioritize the underwriting of the submissions that best fit their risk profile. Not only does this drive incremental revenue gains, it also differentiates carriers competing for quality business from brokers.

Why We’re Backing Sixfold

Salesforce Ventures is excited about the opportunity in vertical applications for AI. We’re interested in teams with deep domain expertise that are using AI to drive meaningful outcomes for users. We look for founders who have an industry and distribution network that can form a moat against newer market entrants. The Sixfold team—Alex Schmelkin (CEO), Jane Tran (COO), and Brian Moseley (CTO)—feature this depth of experience and connection in the insurance sector, alongside deep technical expertise and a strong entrepreneurial pedigree. Alex and Jane were both founding members of the team at Unqork, and Brian was previously Head of Developer Experience at AMEX.

Due to heavy compliance requirements and long procurement cycles, insurance is often a challenging sector to sell into. The Sixfold platform is built with industry-grade security and reliability, data traceability, and data lineage that supports compliance. The Sixfold team’s deep understanding of the sector has allowed them to build a product that truly captures the mindset of the underwriter, making it the only turnkey solution currently in the market.

Sixfold is solving a long-term pain point for insurance carriers, with clear and outsized ROI. Since launching the platform in mid-2023, Sixfold has seen strong pull from global carriers across commercial underwriting lines, including property & casualty, life, and specialty (e.g. cyber) insurance. The company has also received industry recognition, including selection for Lloyd’s Lab’s Accelerator program, the #1 insurance-focused accelerator in the world.

What’s Ahead?

Sixfold is well-positioned to benefit from a moment of evolution in an industry that has historically been a late adopter when it comes to technological transformation. Awareness and access to generative AI has catalyzed interest and budget allocated to new technologies, with potential use cases that drive measurable topline revenue growth. As such, insurers see a huge opportunity in implementing AI technology, and Sixfold is working alongside industry leaders and regulators to facilitate this transition.

We’re incredibly excited to be partnering with Sixfold on their journey to unlock huge efficiencies for underwriters in the coming years. And we’re thrilled to be leading the Series A round in Sixfold alongside Scale Venture Partners and MTech, and existing investors Bessemer Venture Partners and Crystal Venture Partners.

Welcome to Salesforce Ventures, Sixfold!