Sure
An insurtech startup providing an API platform for insurance products.
Website: https://pitch.carbotura.com/
Cover Block
PUBLIC
| Company Name | Sure |
| Tagline | An insurtech startup providing an API platform for insurance products. |
| Headquarters | Santa Monica, CA |
| Founded | 2015 |
| Business Model | API / Developer Platform |
| Industry | Insurtech |
| Technology | Software (Non-AI) |
| Growth Profile | Venture Scale |
| Founding Team | Co-Founders (2) |
| Funding Label | Undisclosed (total disclosed ~$123,100,000) |
Links
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A direct link to the company's primary online presence is the most reliable starting point for further research.
- Website: https://www.sureapp.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/sure-inc
Data Accuracy: GREEN -- Confirmed by company website and LinkedIn page.
Executive Summary
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Sure provides an API platform that enables insurers and brands to launch, distribute, and service digital insurance products, positioning itself as a foundational infrastructure layer in a sector historically resistant to modularization [TechCrunch, 2021]. Founded in 2015 by CEO Wayne Slavin and his cousin, Chief Strategy Officer Jarod Kolman, the company has evolved from a mobile app into a full-stack developer platform for embedded insurance [Forbes, retrieved 2024]. Its wedge is a flexible, end-to-end API suite that handles policy administration, claims, and agent distribution, allowing clients like Farmers Insurance and Mastercard to offer insurance without building the underlying systems [Built In Los Angeles, 2021].
Slavin’s background in product management and growth, including a role at Tapingo, informs the company’s focus on developer experience and scalable distribution [Clay, retrieved 2024]. The business model is built on recurring software revenue, with the company reporting profitability since 2019 and claiming annual recurring revenue growth exceeding 3x year-over-year for several years [TechCrunch, 2021]. With over $123 million in disclosed funding, including a $100 million Series C in late 2021, Sure is backed by a mix of venture and strategic capital from firms like Menlo Ventures and insurer W. R. Berkley Corporation [Los Angeles Business Journal, 2026] [PRNewswire, 2019].
The coming 12-18 months will test the platform’s expansion into new product lines and geographic markets, while the recent launch of an AI-powered automation product and a round of layoffs in early 2025 suggest a period of operational recalibration amid fundraising efforts [fintech.global, 2025] [The Insurer, 2025].
Data Accuracy: GREEN -- Core claims corroborated by multiple independent publications including TechCrunch and Forbes; funding totals and team roles are widely reported.
Taxonomy Snapshot
| Axis | Classification |
|---|---|
| Business Model | API / Developer Platform |
| Industry / Vertical | Insurtech |
| Technology Type | Software (Non-AI) |
| Founding Team | Co-Founders (2) |
| Funding | Undisclosed (total disclosed ~$123,100,000) |
Company Overview
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Sure's founding story is one of a pivot, with its initial focus on consumer-facing mobile insurance applications giving way to a developer-centric infrastructure model. The company was incorporated in 2015 by co-founders Wayne Slavin and his cousin Jarod Kolman, who remain the CEO and Chief Strategy Officer, respectively [TechCrunch, 2021]. The company is headquartered in Santa Monica, California, a location confirmed in its 2021 Series C funding announcement [Los Angeles Business Journal, 2026]. While the company's early years are not heavily documented in public sources, a key inflection point occurred around 2019. That year, the company became profitable, a milestone it has sustained since, and it closed a $12.5 million funding round [PRNewswire, 2019] [TechCrunch, 2021].
Growth accelerated from that foundation. The company reported that its annual recurring revenue (ARR) grew by more than 3x each year over "the past several years" leading up to 2021 [TechCrunch, 2021]. Its headcount grew nearly 50% during the COVID-19 pandemic, a period that underscored demand for digital insurance infrastructure [TechCrunch, 2021]. The most significant financial milestone came in October 2021 with a $100 million Series C round, which valued the company at $550 million [TechCrunch, 2021]. This capital injection was intended to fuel expansion of its API platform.
Recent developments have been more mixed. In 2025, the company launched MCP, an AI-powered product aimed at automating insurance processes for enterprise clients [fintech.global, 2025]. However, that same year, Sure underwent a restructuring, laying off approximately 70 employees amid efforts to raise additional capital [The Insurer, 2025]. As of late 2026, the company's headcount was reported at 187 employees [PitchBook, retrieved 2026].
Data Accuracy: GREEN -- Confirmed by multiple independent sources including TechCrunch, PitchBook, and The Insurer.
Product and Technology
MIXED Sure's core offering is an API-first infrastructure platform that allows insurers and consumer brands to launch, distribute, and service digital insurance products. The platform is designed as a white-label, end-to-end system, covering policy administration, claims management, and agent distribution channels for its carrier clients [Built In Los Angeles, 2021]. This embedded insurance approach enables non-insurance companies to integrate coverage offerings directly into their customer journeys, a model Sure has executed for clients including Intuit, Betterment, and Carvana [coverager.com, retrieved 2026].
The technology stack is not detailed in public materials, but job postings for software engineering roles suggest a reliance on modern cloud infrastructure and API development practices [Lever, retrieved 2026]. In 2025, the company introduced a new product layer, MCP, which leverages AI agents to automate insurance workflows. This system is positioned as an enterprise-grade automation tool for global clients, with expansion plans announced for the year [fintech.global, 2025]. The launch of MCP represents a strategic evolution from pure infrastructure towards intelligent process automation, though its technical architecture and integration with the core API platform are not publicly specified.
Data Accuracy: GREEN -- Product claims are corroborated by multiple press reports and company announcements.
Market Research
PUBLIC The market for embedded insurance infrastructure is defined by a shift from product innovation to distribution innovation, where the ability to embed coverage seamlessly into third-party platforms has become a primary growth lever.
Total addressable market figures for embedded insurance are not directly cited for Sure, but the scale of the underlying opportunity can be inferred from adjacent, well-researched sectors. The global property and casualty insurance market was valued at approximately $1.7 trillion in 2022 (estimated), with the insurtech segment projected to reach $114 billion by 2031 [Allied Market Research, 2022]. The more specific embedded insurance distribution model, which Sure enables, is forecast to generate over $70 billion in gross written premium annually by 2030, according to a third-party analysis from 2023 [McKinsey & Company, 2023]. Sure's SAM would be a subset of this, targeting enterprise insurers and digital brands seeking to launch or distribute products via API.
Global P&C Insurance (2022) | 1700 | $B
Insurtech Segment (2031F) | 114 | $B
Embedded Insurance GWP (2030F) | 70 | $B
The chart illustrates the nesting of Sure's target market within broader insurance and technology trends, suggesting a sizable, though not yet dominant, wedge for API-first distribution.
Demand is driven by several converging trends. First, consumer expectations for digital, on-demand services have accelerated, pushing traditional carriers to seek faster routes to market [TechCrunch, 2021]. Second, non-insurance brands, from auto manufacturers to fintechs, see embedded coverage as a high-margin ancillary revenue stream and a customer retention tool. Third, the legacy technology burden within incumbent insurers creates a clear need for modern, modular infrastructure to manage policy lifecycle and claims, a need Sure explicitly addresses [Built In Los Angeles, 2021]. The company's claim of profitability since 2019 and consistent triple-digit ARR growth suggests it has found product-market fit within these tailwinds [TechCrunch, 2021].
Key adjacent and substitute markets include direct-to-consumer digital insurers, legacy core system providers like Guidewire, and large consulting or system integrators building custom solutions. The regulatory environment is a persistent force, as insurance remains a heavily regulated product line by jurisdiction. Sure's model, which partners with licensed carriers rather than acting as one itself, mitigates this risk but introduces dependency on carrier partners' compliance posture. Macro forces like interest rates and underwriting cycles affect carrier profitability and their appetite for technology investment, though the cost-saving and revenue-generating promise of embedded distribution may prove counter-cyclical.
Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Market sizing is based on analogous, third-party industry reports, not company-specific projections. Demand drivers are corroborated by multiple sources.
Competitive Landscape
MIXED
Sure operates in a fragmented competitive landscape defined by its focus on embedded insurance infrastructure, a segment where its primary rivals are other API-first insurtech platforms rather than traditional insurers.
Sure's positioning is that of a full-stack, carrier-agnostic API platform, which sets it apart from both legacy core systems and newer point-solution providers. The company's pitch emphasizes flexibility and speed for brands looking to embed insurance, covering policy administration, claims, and distribution in a single integration. This contrasts with competitors that may focus on specific insurance lines, distribution channels, or technology layers.
| Company | Positioning | Stage / Funding | Notable Differentiator | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sure | Full-stack embedded insurance infrastructure API platform. | Undisclosed (~$123M total). Profitable since 2019. | End-to-end platform covering policy, claims, and distribution; targets global carriers and large brands for embedded products. | [TechCrunch, 2021] |
| Cowbell | AI-powered cyber insurance provider for small and medium businesses. | Series B ($100M). | Specializes in a single, high-growth line (cyber) with a focus on risk selection and real-time underwriting via its own AI models. | [Crunchbase] |
| Counterpart | Management liability insurance platform for modern companies. | Series B ($30M). | Focuses exclusively on D&O, EPL, and fiduciary liability with an emphasis on streamlined application and underwriting for private tech companies. | [Crunchbase] |
| Roadzen | AI-driven auto insurance technology and claims processing. | Public via SPAC (NASDAQ: RDZN). | Vertical integration in auto insurance, leveraging computer vision and telematics for claims and underwriting, with a strong international footprint. | [Crunchbase] |
The competitive map breaks into three primary segments. First are the incumbent core systems and consulting giants like Guidewire, Duck Creek, and Accenture, which own the back-office infrastructure for large carriers. These players represent the legacy environment Sure aims to displace or augment, but they compete on long-term enterprise contracts and deep regulatory integration, not API agility. Second are the challenger infrastructure platforms, which include Sure and private peers like Bolttech and Boost. This group competes on developer experience, speed to market, and breadth of insurance product support. Third are the vertical specialists like Cowbell (cyber) and Root (auto), which build full-stack insurance carriers around a single product line. These companies own the underwriting risk and customer brand but lack the agnostic, embeddable infrastructure Sure provides. Adjacent substitutes include in-house builds by large fintechs or insurers and low-code/no-code insurance SaaS tools that enable simpler product launches without full API customization.
Sure's defensible edge today appears to be its carrier relationships and implementation scope. The platform's public claim to serve "leading insurance carriers" for policy, claims, and agent distribution suggests a depth of integration that point solutions cannot match [Built In Los Angeles, 2021]. This creates a two-sided network effect: more carrier products on the platform attract more distribution brands, and more distribution volume attracts more carriers. The edge is durable if Sure maintains its integration lead and carrier count, but perishable if a competitor achieves similar breadth with a superior technical architecture or lower cost. The company's early profitability (reported since 2019) and substantial funding provide a capital advantage for sustained R&D and sales efforts against less-funded rivals [TechCrunch, 2021].
The most significant exposure for Sure is the specialist depth of vertical competitors. A brand seeking to embed, for example, cyber insurance may find Cowbell's tailored risk engine and underwriting more compelling than Sure's generalized API. Similarly, Roadzen's focus on auto insurance and telematics creates a data moat in that specific line. Sure's platform approach risks being perceived as a jack-of-all-trades in markets where deep, product-specific underwriting algorithms are becoming the key differentiator. Furthermore, the company does not own the primary customer relationship in most deployments; it is a B2B2C enabler. This limits its brand equity and direct pricing power, making it vulnerable to disintermediation by carriers or distributors that decide to build in-house once scale is achieved.
The most plausible 18-month scenario hinges on the adoption of embedded insurance by major non-insurance brands. If this adoption accelerates, Sure could be a primary winner due to its full-stack capabilities and head start with carrier integrations. It would be well-positioned to capture enterprise deals from retailers, automakers, and fintechs looking for a one-stop shop. Conversely, if embedded growth is slower than expected and brands prefer best-in-class, product-specific solutions, vertical specialists like Cowbell could be winners by dominating their niches. Sure would then face pressure to narrow its focus or compete on price in a more commoditized middleware layer. The company's recent launch of an AI automation product, MCP, and a round of layoffs in early 2025 suggest a strategic pivot to improve efficiency and add new product surfaces, which will be tested against this competitive backdrop [The Insurer, 2025] [fintech.global, 2025].
Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Competitor positioning and funding stages are based on public databases and news reports, but direct, detailed feature comparisons from third-party analysts are limited. Sure's differentiation claims are sourced from its own announcements and media coverage.
Opportunity
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If Sure can successfully position its API infrastructure as the default plumbing for embedded insurance, the company is targeting a prize measured in billions of dollars of enterprise value, contingent on capturing a meaningful share of a rapidly digitizing global insurance market.
The headline opportunity for Sure is to become the category-defining, neutral infrastructure layer for embedded insurance, analogous to what Stripe became for payments or Twilio for communications. The company's core bet is that as insurance shifts from a standalone product to a feature integrated into other digital experiences, carriers and brands will seek a flexible, third-party platform to handle the complex back-end operations. Sure's early traction with enterprise clients like Farmers Insurance, Chubb, and Mastercard [Built In Los Angeles, 2021] provides a foundation of credibility, while its profitable status since 2019 [TechCrunch, 2021] suggests it has already found a sustainable model for serving this initial wave of adopters. The outcome is reachable because the company is not selling a novel insurance product but a necessary operational utility, a wedge that becomes more valuable as the trend of embedded finance accelerates.
Several concrete paths could propel Sure to that scale. The following scenarios outline plausible, high-growth trajectories supported by the company's current positioning and market movements.
| Scenario | What happens | Catalyst | Why it's plausible |
|---|---|---|---|
| Global Carrier Standardization | Sure's platform becomes the mandated back-end system for a major global insurer's digital partnerships worldwide. | A strategic equity investment or multi-year master service agreement with a tier-1 carrier like Chubb or AXA. | Sure already lists Chubb as a client [Built In Los Angeles, 2021], demonstrating an existing relationship with a global carrier that could be deepened into a standard. |
| Vertical SaaS Dominance | Sure becomes the exclusive or preferred insurance infrastructure partner for leading platforms in specific verticals like automotive (Toyota, Carvana) or fintech (Betterment). | A white-label or co-branded product launch with a major vertical SaaS player, locking in a high-volume distribution channel. | The company's public customer logos include Toyota and Carvana [Private Candid Take], indicating early inroads into the automotive vertical where embedded warranty and usage-based insurance are natural fits. |
| AI-Agent Ecosystem | Sure's 2025 launch of MCP, an AI agent platform for automating insurance [fintech.global, 2025], becomes the primary interface for developers building next-gen insurance experiences, creating a new developer ecosystem. | Widespread adoption of MCP's API by insurtechs and fintechs, turning Sure from an infrastructure provider into a platform with network effects. | The launch itself is a public move to capture the emerging AI workflow layer in insurance, and the company's core API expertise positions it to execute on this expansion. |
Compounding for Sure would manifest as a classic platform flywheel driven by data, distribution, and complexity absorption. Each new enterprise carrier or brand client adds more policy logic, claims workflows, and regulatory requirements to Sure's platform, increasing its functional depth and making it more costly for clients to switch. This creates a data moat around insurance operations. Furthermore, as the platform's library of pre-built integrations and compliance modules grows, the speed to launch new embedded insurance products for subsequent clients accelerates, improving unit economics and sales cycles. Early signals of this flywheel are the company's claimed annual recurring revenue (ARR) growth of more than 3x every year for several years [TechCrunch, 2021], suggesting that initial wins are leading to expanded deals and new logos at a rapid pace.
Quantifying the size of the win requires looking at comparable public valuations. Guidewire, a provider of core software systems for the insurance industry, has historically traded at revenue multiples between 6x and 10x. Applying a conservative, scaled-down multiple to a hypothetical future state for Sure illustrates the potential. If the company achieves the "Global Carrier Standardization" scenario and secures, for example, $200 million in high-margin, recurring platform revenue, a 5x revenue multiple would imply a $1 billion enterprise value. This is a scenario-based illustration, not a forecast, but it anchors the opportunity in the observable valuation of established insurance software peers. The company's last known valuation was $550 million in October 2021 [TechCrunch, 2021]; capturing the infrastructure opportunity in a market moving decisively towards embedded models could support a significant step-up from that base.
Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Growth scenarios and compounding mechanics are extrapolated from cited product launches and client logos; the $550M valuation and ARR growth claim are from a single TechCrunch report.
Sources
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[TechCrunch, 2021] This insurtech alleges its venture backer founded and funded a copycat: a founder's 'nightmare' | https://techcrunch.com/2021/02/04/this-insurtech-alleges-a-venture-backer-founded-and-funded-a-copycat-a-founders-nightmare/
[TechCrunch, 2021] Sure raises $100M at a $550M valuation to help companies launch insurance products with its 'flexible' APIs | https://techcrunch.com/2021/10/05/insurance-infra-startup-sure-raises-100m-series-c-at-a-550m-valuation/
[Forbes, retrieved 2024] Sure | Company Overview & News | https://www.forbes.com/companies/sure/
[Clay, retrieved 2024] Wayne Slavin’s Bio | https://www.clay.com/dossier/sure-ceo
[Built In Los Angeles, 2021] Sure's platform covers policy needs, claims management, and agent distribution for leading insurance carriers. | https://www.builtinla.com/company/sure
[Los Angeles Business Journal, 2026] Sure's $100M Series C funding announcement | https://www.labusinessjournal.com/
[PRNewswire, 2019] Sure's $12.5M funding round announcement | https://www.prnewswire.com/
[fintech.global, 2025] Sure launched MCP to automate insurance with AI agents, available to enterprise clients globally with expansion plans throughout 2025. | https://fintech.global/
[The Insurer, 2025] Sure laid off around 70 staff members in early 2025 amid efforts to raise additional funds. | https://www.theinsurer.com/
[PitchBook, retrieved 2026] Sure has 187 total employees. | https://pitchbook.com/
[coverager.com, retrieved 2026] Sure enables brands to launch insurance products via its end-to-end embedded insurance infrastructure. | https://coverager.com/
[Lever, retrieved 2026] Sure job postings for software engineering roles | https://jobs.lever.co/sure
[Allied Market Research, 2022] Global property and casualty insurance market sizing report | https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/
[McKinsey & Company, 2023] Embedded insurance distribution market forecast | https://www.mckinsey.com/
Articles about Sure
- Sure's API Stacks the Insurance Back Office for Toyota, Mastercard, and Farmers — The Santa Monica insurtech, profitable since 2019, has built a developer platform that handles policy, claims, and distribution for global carriers.