Halifax-based Insurtech startup QuickFacts has raised a CA$2M seed round from Sandpiper Ventures, Killick Capital, InsurTech NY and other investors. This funding comes just over a year after the startup raised its CA$1.13M pre-seed round. In an interaction with The Tech Factor, Co-founder and CRO, Jeff Barsalou, shared more details.
Halifax-based Canadian Insurtech startup QuickFacts has raised a CA$2M seed round. Sandpiper Ventures, the Atlantic Canada based women-focused fund, led the round in the software-as-a-service (SaaS) startup. In addition, other institutions like Killick Capital, InsurTech NY, and East Valley Ventures also invested in the seed round. Killick Capital is a St. John’s based fund headed by Mark Dobbin, while InsurTech NY is a NYC based fund investing in new products, distribution solutions, and technologies to evolve the insurance industry.
Several individual angels have also participated in the round. These include Paul Hill, Canadian technology executive and angel investor; Neil Mitchell, former Managing Director at Marsh Canada; Phil Gibson, previous Managing Director for Aviva, and senior executive at Allstate and Travelers US; as well as Don Jacobi, the previous owner of Jacobi Brien Insurance.
Sandpiper Ventures had also led the company’s CA$1.13M pre-seed round just over a year ago. In fact, Killick Capital, Paul Hill, and Neil Mitchell had participated in the previous round too. The company mentioned to The Tech Factor that the current seed round was oversubscribed. With the capital infusion, it intends to expand into the US and Quebec markets, after recently extending its reach throughout the Canadian Western provinces. The company had indeed mentioned its plan to grow Canada-wide after its previous round. Quickfacts had earlier graduated from Atlantic Canadian virtual accelerator, Propel.
Insurtech startup QuickFacts has scaled rapidly
Christy Barsalou (Silvestri) and Jeff Barsalou founded QuickFacts in late 2020 from their home office in Halifax. Since then, they have grown it into a national-scale software technology company for the insurance industry in Canada. The idea of the startup was borne out of the difficulties Christy faced for 17 years as a broker in managing her team and handling underwriting inquiries. Today, Insurtech startup QuickFacts offers a SaaS platform that compiles insurance company data into a user-friendly and searchable database.
Jeff highlighted that their platform reduces underwriting calls by up to 50% and saves users up to two hours a day by enabling side-by-side underwriting comparisons and streamlining brokerage procedures. In terms of current scale, he said that by using QuickFacts, brokers have saved an estimated 228,306 hours in 2024 alone. These hours can now be used to expand the business and provide better client service instead. Moreover, in little more than a year, Insurtech startup QuickFacts has tripled its number of active users to reach 2,500 users and 100 brokerage clients. He commented that because of this expansion, QuickFacts has been able to establish bigger alliances in the brokerage sector.
The team was very proud of the success and positive feedback QuickFacts gathered over the past year, added Jeff. He stated that securing the latest financing was important for maintaining the growth trajectory of the company.
“QuickFacts is rapidly transforming the insurance industry: Christy, Jeff and team have built a transformative AI-enabled platform with the ability to streamline underwriting and reduce inefficiencies for brokers. They have developed a strong and growing customer base across Canada and now into the U.S. We are excited to support the QuickFacts team as they continue to enhance capabilities and further expand their reach.”
Rhiannon Davies, Co-founder and Managing Partner, Sandpiper Ventures
US expansion plans rooted in similarity of broker problems
QuickFacts currently has 19 employees and is planning to hire four more this year to aid its geographical expansion. Along with exploring partnerships with vendors and carriers, it also hopes to expand its product offerings by adding additional Commercial and Agricultural lines, and widen its AI and data technologies.
Regarding the expansion plans, Christy mentioned why QuickFacts was optimistic about US. She said that the pain points for US brokerages were similar to Canada, just at a much bigger scale. QuickFasts also highlighted the rapidity of carrier information change – in just H1 2024, 250 underwriting rule changes happened for Ontario personal insurance carrier markets. Therefore, their team believes that technology adoption among brokers was imperative to remain updated on carrier information changes, deliver accurate advice, as well as operate at higher efficiency and service quality.
David Gritz, Managing Director of InsurTech NY, added another dimension on technology adoption need among US brokers – generational handover.
“Having the right systems in place with QuickFacts can make the transition to the next generation smoother. With the average age of a broker significantly above the median worker in the US and pressure for agency owners to sell or retire, the need in the market is expanding exponentially.”
David Gritz, Managing Director of InsurTech NY
With growing technology adoption, global Insurtech market can triple in five years to over US$32B, per Mordor Intelligence. Several Canadian insurance startups have raised capital recently, including Foxquilt, Quandri and Koios Intelligence.
Insurtech startup QuickFacts fundraise adds to more startup activity in Atlantic Canada in recent weeks. This includes rounds of Sustane Technologies and Innerlogic, and Propel’s latest cohort reveal.
