For the CFO of a 200-person tech company, buying directors and officers insurance is a process that feels stuck in the last century. It involves lengthy applications, manual financial reviews, and weeks of back-and-forth with brokers who are often just intermediaries to the actual underwriter. Tanner Hackett, Counterpart's founder and CEO, saw that friction as a data problem. His company's bet is that by analyzing a business's culture, compliance posture, and financials with proprietary software, it can price and bind management liability policies faster, and with a clearer view of risk, than the old guard [BusinessWire, March 2025].
Counterpart calls this approach Agentic Insurance, a term it trademarked to describe a platform that integrates underwriting, broker services, and claims. The company doesn't carry the risk itself. Instead, it acts as a managing general agent (MGA), using its AI models to assess applications and then placing the policies with a panel of five A-rated carriers, including Aspen and Markel [rutlandherald.com, retrieved 2026]. The real distribution engine, however, is its network of 2,800 wholesale brokers who use Counterpart's system to get their clients covered [InsuranceNewsNet, retrieved 2026]. For a broker, the pitch is digitization and speed. For Counterpart, the broker network provides a capital-efficient sales channel into a $20 billion market for private company management liability [Private Equity Wire, retrieved 2026].
A founder's second act in regulated markets
Tanner Hackett is not a first-time founder, but Counterpart represents a pivot into a highly regulated, capital-intensive industry. His previous venture, Button, founded in 2014, was a mobile deep-linking technology company [TechCrunch, 2015]. Before that, he held executive roles at Rocket Internet and was the general manager of Lazada in Southeast Asia [TechCrunch, 2015]. The shift from app-linking tech to insurance underwriting is significant. Hackett has framed the move as an application of software and data science to a sector ripe for modernization, a thesis that attracted early backing from Valor Equity Partners [Valor Equity Partners site, undated]. His experience as an angel investor in other insurtech startups, like Ascend, also provided a window into the sector's challenges and opportunities [TechCrunch, 2021].
Traction through the broker channel
The company's growth metrics are almost entirely channel-driven. Counterpart reports it has processed more than 250,000 applications and written over 35,000 policies [InsuranceNewsNet, retrieved 2026] [Great Place to Work, undated]. These are substantial numbers for a niche line of insurance, though they represent submissions and bindings facilitated through its broker partners, not direct enterprise contracts. The company also claims a 4.7 customer satisfaction score on claims handling and a 50% faster claims resolution time, suggesting its integrated platform aims to improve the post-bind experience as well [Counterpart Blog, retrieved 2026] [Great Place to Work, undated]. This focus on the entire policy lifecycle, from application to claim, is what differentiates a full-stack MGA from a simple lead generator.
| Metric | Claimed Figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Policies Written | Over 35,000 | [Great Place to Work, undated] |
| Applications Processed | More than 250,000 | [InsuranceNewsNet, retrieved 2026] |
| Broker Network | 2,800 brokers | [InsuranceNewsNet, retrieved 2026] |
| Claims CSAT Score | 4.7 (out of 5) | [Counterpart Blog, retrieved 2026] |
| Carrier Partners | Five A-rated carriers | [rutlandherald.com, retrieved 2026] |
The $30 million Series B and the road ahead
In April 2026, Counterpart closed a $30 million Series B funding round led by Vy Capital, with participation from existing investors Valor Equity Partners and Felicis Ventures [dot.la, April 2026]. This brought its total disclosed funding to $40 million, though other sources report a total raise of $65.8 million [PitchBook, retrieved 2026]. The new capital appears earmarked for scaling its insurance operations and technology team. Recent job postings highlight a push to deepen expertise, with open roles for a Management Liability Lead and a Production Risk Engineer focused on the central U.S. region [Greenhouse, retrieved 2026].
The funding arrives at a critical juncture. The market for SMB insurtech is crowded, and management liability is a complex product where claims can be severe and litigation-prone. Counterpart's answer is a heavier reliance on data-driven underwriting to maintain favorable loss ratios, which it cites as a point of pride to its carrier partners [Great Place to Work, undated]. The next twelve months will test whether its AI models can accurately predict and price risk at scale, especially as economic conditions shift and claim frequencies evolve.
Navigating a realistic competitive set
Counterpart's ideal customer profile is clear: it's not the business owner, but the wholesale broker who serves small to mid-sized businesses in need of management and professional liability coverage. For that broker, the realistic competitive set isn't just other tech-enabled MGAs.
- Full-stack digital carriers like Next Insurance and Vouch. These companies often market directly to small businesses, bypassing the broker entirely. Counterpart's strategy is to empower the broker, not displace them.
- Traditional carrier direct teams. Large incumbents like AIG have their own teams and processes for this line. Counterpart competes on speed, digital experience, and potentially, more granular risk assessment.
- Brokerage platforms like Embroker, which also offer digital management liability products. Here, competition is for broker loyalty and platform ease-of-use.
The company's wedge is its specific focus on management liability (D&O, EPLI, fiduciary) and its agentic, data-first underwriting model. It's not trying to be a generalist small business insurer. Its success hinges on proving to its network of 2,800 brokers that its system gets their clients better terms and faster service than the alternatives, thereby driving more submissions and bindings through its panel.
Sources
- [BusinessWire, March 2025] Counterpart Introduces Agentic Insurance™ | https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250312842558/en/Counterpart-Introduces-Agentic-Insurance-Pioneering-AI-Powered-Management-and-Professional-Liability-Systems
- [Counterpart Blog, retrieved 2026] Counterpart | Agentic Insurance™ | https://yourcounterpart.com/
- [dot.la, April 2026] Counterpart Raises $30M to Help Small Businesses Manage Risk | https://dot.la/counterpart-raise-2656821723.html
- [Great Place to Work, undated] Counterpart Insurance - Great Place To Work | https://www.greatplacetowork.com/certified-company/7054159
- [Greenhouse, retrieved 2026] Job Application for Management Liability Lead at Counterpart | https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/counterpart/jobs/4012706005
- [InsuranceNewsNet, retrieved 2026] Source details not captured in provided snippets.
- [PitchBook, retrieved 2026] Counterpart - Crunchbase Company Profile & Funding | https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/counterpart-7676
- [Private Equity Wire, retrieved 2026] Source details not captured in provided snippets.
- [rutlandherald.com, retrieved 2026] Source details not captured in provided snippets.
- [TechCrunch, 2015] Button Raises $12 Million From Redpoint To Deep Link All Your Apps | https://techcrunch.com/2015/01/22/button-12m-redpoint/
- [TechCrunch, 2021] Ascend raises $5.5M to provide a BNPL option for commercial insurance | https://techcrunch.com/2021/09/15/ascend-raises-5-5m-to-provide-a-bnpl-option-for-commercial-insurance/
- [Valor Equity Partners site, undated] Counterpart - Company Profile | https://www.valorep.com/counterpart-company-profile