We’ve got some big news to share.
Newmetrix (formerly Smartvid.io) just raised $5 million in new financing led by IA Capital Group, the leading independent venture capital firm focusing on insurtech. The firm has a track record of more than two decades of successfully partnering with early and growth stage companies in insurance and financial services, and it manages strategic venture capital programs for 15 insurance companies. Our prior venture investors, Building Ventures, Companyon Ventures and Converge, also participated, along with other strategic and individual investors.
Now, if you did a double take when you read that our new investor is an insurtech-focused firm, I can’t blame you. Newmetrix is known as an AI-powered construction safety platform, not an insurtech product. But that doesn’t mean insurers aren’t keenly interested in our ability to significantly lower construction safety risk and reduce the number of recordable incidents. In fact, if you look at our work over the last 12 months, you can see how this is the continuation of a significant trend for us, deepening our relationships with the insurance ecosystem.
But before we go into more detail about Newmetrix and the insurance industry, I should note the industries our investors focus on. Building Ventures invests in companies that are reshaping the way we design, build, operate and experience our built environment. Companyon Ventures funds B2B software startups into their expansion-stage by injecting decades of startup and VC experience through operational hands-on investing. Converge invests in Industry 4.0 start-ups building AI software that solves businesses’ most pressing needs.
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But you probably know our construction story. Our insurance journey may be a bit less familiar to you, but, in truth, we’ve been working in insurance for a while now. Newmetrix has collaborated with the risk mitigation professionals from Aon to improve safety on jobsites. You can hear about that in a webinar we recorded, and Aon produced a Technology Corner Profile of Newmetrix. We’re also very proud to be members of the AXA-XL Data Ecosystem project, which aims to aggregate data to help the insurers’ clients manage jobsite risks. Clearly, insurers care a great deal about risk, obviously, and we’ve been talking a lot both with customers and here on the blog about how our platform can help construction companies negotiate for lower insurance rates.
Matt Perlman, Partner at IA Capital Group, agrees that our solution has a lot of value to insurers. “Josh Kanner and his team bring unparalleled experience and credibility as pioneers in construction technology,” Matt said. “We believe their source-agnostic, low friction approach positions them as the clear leader in aggregating safety observations and delivering predictive insights across construction and industrial sites. They are among the most exciting next generation AI tools we have seen that can help insurance carriers and their clients mitigate risk.”
And our relationship with the insurance industry continues to deepen. In fact, the insurance industry has become so important to us, we’ve brought on Justin Levine as an advisor. Justin brings many years of experience working with the insurance ecosystem. He served as a risk manager at the New York City-based contractor, Hunter Roberts, which he left to found TradeTapp, a pre-qualification software platform that was acquired by BuildingConnected (and again by Autodesk). While at BuildingConnected, Justin helped to craft and execute their risk strategy and go to market activities by partnering with some of the largest carriers in the industry, including AXA-XL.
“I see a lot of similarities to the risk insights and win-win relationships we built at TradeTapp and BuildingConnected with what Newmetrix is doing in the insurance space,” Justin said. “I’m bullish on software that provides companies with automated insights into their safety risk across projects, and in turn giving their safety teams and the risk engineering teams for the carriers better visibility and predictability. This is valuable to both contractors and carriers. I look forward to helping Newmetrix continue to forge further relationships within the insurance ecosystem to help improve safety and reduce insurance costs.”
It’s an exciting time here at Newmetrix. The new funding will help us continue to expand our reach and innovate with Vinnie, our AI. It also opens up a new market for us and validates our ability not just to improve safety, but also bring down insurance costs. So, if you’re interested in reducing jobsite injuries and convincing your insurer to give you a better rate, get in touch and set up a no cost pilot! We’d love to show how Newmetrix can help reduce risk.
