Next Insurance Acquires Juniper Labs

The company's first acquisition will further innovation in workers' compensation and general liability product offerings through advanced machine learning capabilities

News provided by

Next Insurance

Dec 10, 2020, 08:30 ET

PALO ALTO, Calif., Dec. 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Next Insurance, the leading digital insurtech company transforming small business insurance, today announced that it has completed the purchase of Juniper Labs, an innovative provider of alternative open data and underwriting technology focused on small businesses. Together, Next Insurance and Juniper Labs will continue to develop enhanced machine-learning capabilities and tools to strengthen the omni-channel customer experience. This is Next Insurance's first acquisition and follows the close of its $250 million Series D financing round at a $2 billion valuation.

Juniper Labs provides better risk transparency by leveraging open data and machine learning to build tools for streamlined data collection and automated underwriting. Using natural language processing, Juniper Labs blends fragmented data sources and unstructured content to provide more structured insights that strengthen the confidence and predictive power of their models, ultimately allowing for more precise risk assessment and a simpler customer experience.

"The insurance sector is primed for innovation and our growth this year not only speaks to the industry's potential, but the benefits that can result from leveraging the right technologies and focusing on customer experiences," said Sofya Pogreb, COO of Next Insurance. "This strategic acquisition of Juniper Labs' technology and expertise in workers' compensation will deepen our investments in relevant technologies such as machine learning, which will help scale pricing and decision making. We look forward to bringing on the Juniper Labs team to further our goal of being the one-stop-shop for small business insurance."

Juniper Labs co-founder and CEO Lance Poole, and his team, will join Next Insurance's machine learning and data analytics group and will help launch the Next Insurance Data Labs. The purpose of the lab is to combine human-centric design, actuarial science, and state-of-the-art machine learning to provide scalable, industry-leading solutions that drive growth and risk-based pricing. Additionally, the Juniper Labs team will help strengthen and scale Next Insurance's workers' compensation offering (among other lines of business), which has seen nearly a 14x increase in year-over-year growth since November 2019.

"Next Insurance and Juniper Labs believe that data is a key differentiator in the effort to provide a better online experience at a more affordable price," said Lance Poole, co-founder and CEO of Juniper Labs. "We're excited to join this like-minded company and contribute to its continued success."

As the world continues to move online, consumers have come to expect quick, efficient and personalized insurance policies, and Next Insurance's early commitment to delivering phenomenal insurance products and customer engagements has helped solidify the company as a leader in the insurtech space. With Next Insurance, insureds have access to USA- based licensed insurance advisors, tools and services like 24/7 access to certificates of insurance from a mobile device or computer, and in-house claims filings where a decision is typically made within 48 hours. Learn more about Next Insurance's General Liability, Professional Liability, Commercial Auto and Workers' Compensation product offerings and get an instant quote online today.

About Next Insurance:
Next Insurance is transforming small business insurance with simple, digital and affordable coverage tailored to the self-employed. Next Insurance offers policies that are easy to buy in 10 minutes or less and provides 24/7 access to Live Certificates of Insurance, Additional Insured, and more, with no extra fees. Revolutionizing a historically complicated insurance industry, Next Insurance utilizes AI and machine learning to simplify the purchasing process and drive down costs by up to 30% compared to traditional policies. Founded in 2016, the company is headquartered in Palo Alto, has received a total of $631 million in venture capital funding and has been recognized by Forbes Fintech 50, JMP Securities InsurTech 50 and Forbes Best StartUp Employers. For more information visit NextInsurance.com. Stay up to date on the latest with Next Insurance on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and our blog.

About Juniper Labs:
Juniper Labs leverages open data and machine learning to help insurtechs, carriers and brokers to more effectively sell and underwrite small business insurance. Founded in 2019 by Lance Poole and John Stevenson, the company's suite of APIs provide structured insights and predictive models that allow more precise risk assessment and a simpler customer experience.

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SOURCE Next Insurance