Exclusive: Pace raises $10 million from Sequoia as enterprise AI collides with insurance

Cove grew up in the Three Cities, where his father worked for Lloyd’s of London, the world’s oldest and most famous insurance market. He’s spent years in startups and has come full circle: Today, Cuffe is the CEO and co-founder of Pace, an AI startup focused on insurance operations, especially around business process outsourcing (or BPOs).

“The Internet is actually what led to outsourcing,” Coffey said. “In the 1990s and 2000s, for the first time, you could do this work wherever you were and send it back. And now we’re seeing the same thing, where all this work that used to be outsourced can now be outsourced overseas to AI.”

Pace, which Cuffe founded in 2024, counts Prudential, The Mutual Group and Newfront among its clients. The startup has just raised $10 million in Series A funding from Sequoia Capital, luck I learned exclusively. In insurance, the business process outsourcing (BPO) market’s annual spending is about $70 billion, and if you include broader financial services operations across the industry, that number reaches $400 billion, Coffey said.

“This is the part of the market that Pace is really addressing,” said Brian Schreier, the Sequoia partner leading the deal, who worked with Cuffe on his last startup, Cheer, which was sold to Retool in 2020. “The thesis behind Pace is that the next wave of disruption in the operations side of insurance — this $100 billion market — is AI because it’s a perfect fit.”

Schreyer and Covey, each in their own way, point out something I’ve thought about many times: that AI is an extraordinary reader of vast amounts of material. It is especially suitable for tasks that involve mountains of documents and technical verbiage. That’s why the “AI moment” has hit the legal industry so hard, with the emergence of giant firms like Harvey and Ligura. Cuff believes this is why insurance has an “AI moment.”

“Legal first took off because the co-pilots were helpful, and there were a lot of people doing that work,” Coffey said. luck. “In insurance, the tasks are on a much higher scale — hundreds of thousands or millions of claims, tens of thousands of claims, for some of these insurers. They have to be able to handle that… The agent moment is what opens up the insurance industry for us.”

see you tomorrow,

Allie Garfinkel
tenth: @agarfinks
Email: alexandra.garfinkle@fortune.com
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Venture capital

– frequent TechnologiesThe Artificial Intelligence Lab in Palo Alto, California, has raised $300 million in Series A funding. Speed ​​of light Take risks Partners He led the tour and joined him Felicis Projects, Sequoia capitalet al.

– Against the winda San Francisco-based cloud security company, has raised $250 million in Series B funding. Bessemer Take risks Partners He led the tour and joined him Sales force Projects, image capitaland existing investors.

– Synthesisa London, UK-based platform designed to create videos using artificial intelligence from text prompts, has raised $200 million in Series E funding. Google Projects He led the tour and joined him Evantic, Hedosophia, Projects, I’m accelerating, Kleiner Perkinset al.

– Memsicoa digital risk protection platform based in Tel Aviv, Israel, has raised $37 million in Series A funding. Adventures, E. Leon Jimenezand Pages group He led the tour and others joined him.

– Visitan AI-powered real estate operations platform based in New York City, has raised $22 million in Series B funding. Susquehanna growth justice He led the tour and joined him vertex Projects Israel, Enfieldand Sarona Projects.

– Barnwell the biographyan animal health and behavior company based in New York City, has raised $6 million in seed funding. Twelve below He led the tour and joined him Top Projects, sleep room finance, banter capitalet al.

– Amidshipsa San Francisco-based AI data automation platform, has raised $4.2 million in seed funding. Costanoa Projects He led the tour and joined him Seguin Projects And angel investors.

– Conceo Amnesty Internationala Toronto, Canada-based AI-powered voice and phone services company designed for e-commerce businesses, has raised $3.3 million in funding. RTP worldwide He led the tour and joined him SaaStr finance, Mo Projectset al.

– Lucinda New York City-based AI platform designed to optimize the data center, has raised $3.3 million in seed funding. distinct Projects climate He led the tour and joined him Mitsubishi Electric innovation finance, new climate Projects, Avestaand Change step.

– Builderan AI-powered operating system for construction based in Montreal, Canada, has raised $3.2 million in seed funding. white star capital He led the tour and joined him one road Projects, Desjardins Capital, asterXand Formentera capital.

– Mantasan insurance and prevention platform based in Dubai, UAE designed to address cloud outage risks, has raised $1.8 million in seed funding from Noah capital, Suhail Projects, plus VCet al.

Private equity

– Card verification code I agreed to the takeover Marathona New York City-based credit management company, valued at $1.2 billion.

Exits

– To trample I agreed to the takeover trust Solutions groupa facilities engineering and consulting firm based in Lisle, Illinois, of Kohlbergat approximately $2.4 billion.

– Kosovo Police Service capital Partners acquired Novasila surface protection solutions company headquartered in Deville, France, from a company Chargers invest. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Money + money money

– 2150The London, UK-based venture capital firm has raised €210 million ($258 million) for its second fund focused on climate technology companies.