Boostplatform

Market position

Boost describes itself, and was described in its 2021 funding announcement, as a leading B2B digital insurance platform in the embedded insurance space; an RRE Ventures partner quoted in the release called it the leader in embedded insurance. The company frames its addressable opportunity as the $700 billion US property and casualty insurance market and compares its role to Plaid in banking-as-a-service and Affirm in point-of-sale financing. These characterizations originate with the company and its investors.

Boost states that it has invested as heavily in the compliance and capital sides of its platform as in its technology, combining licensing in all 50 states through its MGA subsidiary, appointments with 'A'-rated fronting carriers, and a dedicated reinsurance facility backed by global reinsurers with an API-delivered policy administration stack. The company claims partners reduce the cost of building and managing an insurance business by over 90% and can integrate in as little as two weeks, versus the 12-48 months typically required to stand up a managing general agency.

Technology

An API-first platform built on a microservices architecture, with more than 15 microservices and approximately 30 integrations as of February 2021. Components include an API-driven policy administration system covering the full policy lifecycle, real-time data dashboards and reporting, and an agency management portal. Boost maintains public developer documentation and an API reference at getstarted.boostplatform.io, with OpenAPI/Swagger specs listed. The engineering team adopted Pactflow contract testing to replace end-to-end testing, reporting an 80% increase in service stability, near-elimination of monthly outages and a drop from about a dozen production issues per quarter to no more than two.

Go-to-market

Boost sells directly to business partners that distribute insurance, marketing a turnkey API integration and demos with company representatives via its website. It works through insurtech and embedded-partner channels, and has used industry event sponsorship (Digital Insurance Summit) and developer-facing documentation at getstarted.boostplatform.io for outreach. Series B proceeds were earmarked in part for partner marketing.

Insurtechs, MGAs, brokers and agents, embedded insurance platforms across industries, and (re)insurers seeking new capital deployment avenues. Named clients as of 2021 include Hippo, Aon's CoverWallet, Cowbell Cyber and Wagmo, alongside fintech, proptech and other B2B and consumer companies; the company reported dozens of digital distribution clients at that time.

Geography

Headquartered in New York, New York. Boost is licensed to develop and sell property and casualty insurance products in all 50 US states, and its platform is described as addressing the complexity of varied US state insurance legislation. No non-US operations are described in the sources.

History

Boost was founded in 2017. By early 2019 it was operating a microservices-based platform and was a customer of contract-testing vendor Pactflow, whose February 2021 case study describes Boost building out an administration system underpinning multiple live client services. In May 2021 the company announced a $20 million Series B, stating total funding since inception of $37 million, dozens of distribution clients and over $5 billion of value insured since launch, and plans to double headcount over the following 12-18 months and release additional insurance products in 2021. Boost has also served as a sponsor of the Digital Insurance Summit industry event.

Risks & controversies

No controversies, litigation or regulatory actions are described in the available sources. Notable limitations: most quantitative claims date from 2021 or are self-reported by the company, and no post-2021 financial, headcount or customer data is available in the material reviewed.