Exclusive: Anzen raises $16M to speed up commercial insurance
Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios
Anzen, which uses AI to help brokers submit, quote and bind commercial insurance, raised $16 million in Series A funding, founder and CEO Max Bruner tells Axios Pro exclusively.
Why it matters: The commercial insurance space still largely operates by PDFs and emails, making smaller and mid-market deals unprofitable for many brokers — and Anzen's AI-driven platform aims to fill that gap.
Zoom in: Madrona led the round and was joined by Sandbox Industries and Andreessen Horowitz, bringing total funding to $26 million.
- Strategic investors include Tokio Marine and MS&AD Ventures.
- Bruner says more than 30 startup founders also backed the company, including Mercury's Immad Akhund, DreamCloud's Eric Hutchinson and SNR's Kevin Mahaffey.
How it works: Anzen's AI reads broker emails, attachments and forms, turning unstructured submissions into structured data.
- It maps each account to the right underwriters from a network of more than 130 carriers and over 500 underwriting contacts.
- The system then imports quotes via email or API, compares coverage terms using line-specific models, and automatically generates proposals.
Between the lines: Anzen began as a wholesale brokerage specializing in hard-to-place specialty lines, including professional and management liability and cyber liability.
- The firm now licenses its tech as AnzenPro, a workflow platform that automates submissions and quotes for outside agencies.
- Pricing is performance-based, with agencies only paying for successfully bound business
What they're saying: "AI is a 20%–30% operating margin uplift for insurance distribution over the next two to five years," Bruner says.
By the numbers: Anzen works with 500 retail agencies, and its average policy size is around $10,000 — a segment that most large wholesalers avoid, Bruner says.
- The company says brokerage revenue is growing 20%–25% quarter over quarter, with millions in ARR.
What's next: Anzen plans deeper carrier integrations for instant quoting and expects to expand into commercial property and auto in 2026.
- AnzenPro's goal is to handle about 80% of agent submission, quoting, binding and renewal workflows by mid-2026.
