SA国际传媒

, a Washington, D.C.-based startup offering workers鈥� compensation insurance to small businesses, announced this morning that it has closed on a $127 million in new financing.

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joined Pie鈥檚 existing backers in the capital raise. Those investors include , , , 听补苍诲

The investment is structured a bit differently than a traditional funding round.

The new financing includes $27 million 鈥渢o support the continued growth and expansion鈥� of Pie Insurance鈥檚 automated offering to small business owners. It represents the second tranche of a Series B. The first tranche, led by , was announced in February 2019.

The remaining $100 million equity capital commitment will go toward the creation of a new holding company that will purchase licensed insurance companies. (We鈥檒l get into that more later.) Gallatin Point Capital led that portion of the financing, which also included participation from Sirius.

The total new investment brings Pie鈥檚 total raised to $188 million since its 2017 inception, according to SA国际传媒 .

The company began selling its insurance policies in March 2018. In the first quarter of 2020, it wrote nearly $19 million in premiums, up 150 percent from just under $7.5 million during the same period in 2019, according to co-founder and CEO .

Pie had a 鈥渕eaningful amount of money鈥� on its balance sheet at the time of the raise, according to Swigart. But it added on to make sure it had enough runway into 2022 and 鈥済et on the other side of COVID,鈥� he said.

鈥淲e wanted to be able to confidently continue to build out the business, add to the team, and do the strategic things that are important to us without having to worry about fundraising in an uncertain COVID world,鈥� Swigart told me.

Looking ahead

Pie, which also has an office in Denver, offers workers鈥� comp coverage in 34 states and the District of Columbia. It plans to continue to expand across the nation to serve more small businesses, either directly or through their agents. It currently has about 165 employees.

Its customer base includes a range of small businesses including trades, contractors, landscapers, janitors, auto shops and restaurants, Swigart said. Pie sells its insurance directly through its website and also through thousands of independent insurance agents.

鈥淭he distribution channel in the industry is not the broken part,鈥� Swigart told SA国际传媒 News. 鈥淲e think it鈥檚 the insurance company side that鈥檚 really ripe for disruption.鈥�

As mentioned above, part of the goal with its new capital is to form a new affiliated company, Pie Carrier Holdings 鈥� which will be majority owned by Gallatin Point Capital 鈥� to create and purchase licensed insurance companies.

Pie Carrier Holdings will own the licensed insurance companies that Pie will use to issue a portion of its insurance policies. Sirius Group is also investing directly in Pie Carrier Holdings and will continue to issue insurance policies offered by Pie.

鈥淲hat businesses like ours need is access to balance sheets to be able to write the insurance,鈥� Swigart said. 鈥淲e want to start capitalizing on our own insurance company that we are forming, and transition to taking some of our own risk.鈥�

That transition will be 鈥渕ultiyear,鈥� he added.

Meanwhile, Greycroft co-founder and partner told me via email that his firm was impressed by how Pie Insurance has “managed to continue growing premium in excess of 100 percent annually, in spite of a difficult market environment.”

“Pie was the first company to offer workers’ compensation insurance that could be purchased online, and the company continues to innovate as the fastest and most data-driven insurer in the market,” he added.

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