Shepherd

Shepherd is a San Francisco-headquartered insurance technology company that underwrites commercial property and casualty coverage for construction, infrastructure and energy projects. It operates as a managing general underwriter, retaining underwriting authority while relying on larger carriers to provide the underlying capacity. Its product set spans primary casualty (including general liability and commercial auto), excess casualty and builder's risk, sold for both annual programs and individual projects, and targeted at middle-market through enterprise-scale insureds.

The company positions technology and data as the basis for faster and more granular risk selection. Its platform integrates with construction technology tools — project management (Procore, Autodesk, Raken), reality capture (OpenSpace, DroneDeploy), telematics (Samsara, Motive) and IoT/sensor providers (Brickeye, WINT, Kairos) — so that underwriting can incorporate current project data such as incident records and inspection rates. Shepherd states that automation and AI shorten underwriting decisions from weeks to hours; at its 2024 Series A it cited an average 12-hour response time and a 24-hour submission-to-indication turnaround, and its website claims indication times 90% faster than a baseline. In 2024 it also introduced Shepherd Compliance, AI software that reviews PDF-based insurance documents and automates downstream vendor compliance workflows, offered free to customers and integrated with platforms such as Procore.

A distinguishing commercial program, Shepherd Savings, applies upfront premium credits of up to 25% to practice or project (CIP) policies for contractors that use participating jobsite technologies and agree to share verified usage data. The program includes multi-year rate renewal guarantees tied to technology utilization, monthly utilization reporting with recommendations, and dedicated savings specialists. Shepherd states the credits are derived from studies with partners and validated against claims data, and that low usage results in the insured being underwritten as a non-technology contractor rather than penalized.

Business model

Shepherd operates as a managing general underwriter: it holds underwriting authority and prices and services risk itself, while coverage capacity is provided by larger carriers. Distribution runs through retail insurance brokerages, with the Shepherd Savings premium-credit program reserved for selected retail brokerage partners. The model supports dynamic pricing that adjusts to real-time project information gathered through construction technology integrations, and software such as Shepherd Compliance is offered to customers at no cost alongside the insurance products [5][6][7].

Revenue derives from underwriting commercial property and casualty insurance programs (primary casualty, excess casualty and builder's risk) as an MGU on behalf of carrier partners; growth is described in terms of gross written premium and revenue rather than software fees, and ancillary software such as Shepherd Compliance is provided free to customers [6][7].

Traction

As of the March 2026 Series B announcement, Shepherd reported revenue growth of more than sevenfold over the prior two years, coverage extending to projects valued at more than $400bn, over 1,500 policies issued and more than 600 clients. Its website repeats the 1,500+ policies and $400B+ insured volume figures. At the February 2024 Series A the company reported five-fold year-over-year gross written premium growth in under 18 months and expansion from a single product (excess liability) to four products covering general liability, commercial auto and workers' compensation. It is ranked No. 139 on the Inc. 5000 [0][6][7].

Latest developments

In March 2026 Shepherd announced a $42m Series B led by Intact Private Capital with participation from Spark Capital and Costanoa Ventures, taking total funding to $67m. The company reported moves into renewable energy and power insurance lines and a builder's risk expansion, and its site promotes the Shepherd Savings premium-credit program and an Inc. 5000 ranking of No. 139 [0][5][6].