Harper, an AI-driven insurance brokerage, has secured $46.8 million in a combined seed and Series A funding round, the company announced Wednesday. The funding will be used to expand the company’s engineering team and bolster its brand presence, according to founder and CEO Dakotah Rice.
Rice, a Y Combinator graduate, previously founded the investment company Poolit, which ceased operations in 2023. He acknowledged to TechCrunch the difficulties he faced in achieving profitability with Poolit, stating, “My ego made it hard to accept the failure. In hindsight, I should have shut it down a year earlier.”
Harper represents a return to Rice’s family roots in the insurance industry. Having witnessed firsthand the complexities faced by entrepreneurs seeking business insurance, he initially explored developing AI tools for existing brokerages. He and Tushar Nair, a longtime friend and former Chief Technology Officer of Poolit, ultimately decided to leverage their technology to create a fully AI-native brokerage, naming it Harper after Rice’s mother’s maiden name.
Launched in 2024, Harper operates as an almost fully autonomous commercial insurance agency, catering to modest- and mid-sized businesses. The company connects businesses with over 160 insurance carriers, specializing in workers’ compensation, general liability, and professional liability coverage. According to Rice, Harper can often complete tasks that traditionally take human brokers five to seven days in just one to two days.
Rice claims Harper’s AI-powered platform enables it to manage over 1,000 customers per month, a significant increase compared to the 20 to 30 deals typically handled by a sales team at a conventional brokerage. The company currently serves more than 5,000 customers. The AI handles key operational tasks, including submission routing, underwriter follow-ups, document collection, and pipeline management.
The funding round included participation from Y Combinator and Peak XV Partners, with Emergence Capital leading the Series A investment, according to the company. Rice views nearly all existing brokerages as competitors, characterizing the industry as fragmented and reliant on outdated methods like “email and spreadsheets.” He also acknowledged the emergence of other AI-native brokerages, such as Gyde, and companies integrating AI tools, including FurtherAI and Vantel, all of which are also Y Combinator alumni.
Harper intends to focus on serving “the real-world businesses” in middle America, including daycares, manufacturers, car dealerships, local bars, and restaurants. Rice envisions Harper evolving beyond insurance to become a comprehensive resource for entrepreneurs, addressing their needs in areas such as risk management, compliance, and broader back-office functions. “We want to make it simple for them to do their core perform, and we basically do everything else over time,” he said.
A TechCrunch event is scheduled to take place in Boston, MA on June 9, 2026.
