When an accident on a building site resulted in the death of their friend, the founders of Safesight were inspired to launch the platform to digitize safety programs for construction. The data from that gave birth to a new insurtech startup this year, Foresight, which covers workers’ compensation. The startup has now released, for the first time, news that it raised a $15 million funding round back in May this year, with participation from Blackhorn Ventures and Transverse Insurance Group. To date, it has raised $20.5 million from industrial technology venture capital firms, led by Brick and Mortar Ventures and Builders VC.
Foresight launched in August of this year but has already covered $30 million in risks. The company says it is now on pace to reach $50 million in underwritten premium in 2021. By leveraging the data from sister company Safesite, the platform says it has been able to reduce workers’ comp incidents by up to 57% in a study conducted by actuarial consulting firm Perr & Knight.
Foresight’s algorithm leverages Safesight data to predict incidents, highlight risks and inform underwriting. By wrapping Safesite risk management technology and services into every policy, Foresight provides a path to lower incident rates and lower premiums for customers.
Of the $57 billion national workers’ compensation market, Foresight focuses on policies ranging from $150,000 to $1 million+ in annual premiums. The company says this segment has been largely overlooked by well-funded insurtech startups such as Next Insurance and Pie, which provide small business policies under $50,000 in annual premiums.
Foresight and Safesite were developed by longtime friends and co-founders David Fontain, Peter Grant and Leigh Appel.
Fontain said: “Foresight strengthens the correlation between safety and savings while providing the fast and easy user experience insurtechs are known for. We leverage purpose-built technology to drive behavioral shifts and provide an irresistible alternative to traditional workers compensation coverage.”
Darren Bechtel, the founder and managing director at Brick & Mortar Ventures, commented: “We first invested in 2016 and have known the founders since 2015 when it was just the two of them, squatting at a couple of empty desks inside another portfolio company’s office. Their initial vision was both elegant and powerful, and the demonstrated impact of their solution on safety performance, even in early interactions with the product, was impossible to ignore.”
Foresight now covers Nevada, Oklahoma, Arizona, Arkansas, Louisiana and New Mexico. The company expects to launch workers’ compensation in the eastern U.S. and a general liability line in early 2021.
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