Comeryx announced its formation and the closing of a $7.5 million funding round to build an AI-native, fully digital managing general agent focused on small business artisan contractors in the excess and surplus insurance market. The round was led by Altai Ventures, with participation from American Family Ventures, Intact Ventures, Boulder Ventures, Arch Capital Group Ltd., and Echelon.
The company is targeting what it describes as a persistent structural challenge in the small business insurance market. While the segment represents a $100+ billion opportunity, brokers and carriers have historically struggled to serve smaller accounts profitably due to manual, time-intensive underwriting processes. Comeryx’s platform is designed to deliver an automated quote, bind, and issue experience, enabling brokers to service small-business artisan contractors quickly while maintaining underwriting discipline.
Comeryx is focused on the small business artisan contractor segment, which includes more than 500,000 U.S. businesses generating under $10 million in revenue. Traditional carriers have often found it difficult to underwrite small premium policies profitably using human-driven processes, leading to coverage gaps and inefficient quoting.
The company is positioning its platform as a solution to what it calls the small premium unit economic problem, using AI-native infrastructure, analytics-driven pricing, and zero-touch workflows to transform high-volume, low-premium accounts into scalable growth opportunities.
Unlike some insurtech models that seek to bypass intermediaries, Comeryx is committed to distributing exclusively through E&S-licensed wholesale brokers. The platform is built specifically to support the wholesale ecosystem rather than disintermediate it.
The founding team brings experience across insurance, analytics, and engineering. Dax Craig, CEO, previously co-founded Pie Insurance and Valen Analytics. Elad Kolet, CTO, was co-founder and CTO of Lively Hearing, which was acquired by GN, and previously held engineering leadership roles at Microsoft and Meta. Matt Frazier, Head of Analytics and Operations, previously served as Chief Analytics Officer at Pie Insurance and Chief Scoring Officer at Valen Analytics. Melissa Bernard, Founding Underwriter, brings nearly 30 years of specialty underwriting experience from CapSpecialty, Freberg Environmental, and RT Specialty.
Comeryx is currently forming underwriting and wholesale partnerships and expects to begin issuing its first policies later in 2026.
KEY QUOTES:
“Wholesale and retail agents often avoid small policies because carriers and MGAs utilize manual underwriting at a cost that is out of line with small premiums. With Comeryx, we are bringing the AI-native infrastructure and disciplined underwriting necessary to serve this large market with the speed and ease brokers need to be profitable.”
Dax Craig, CEO And Co-Founder, Comeryx
“CEO and Co-Founder Dax Craig is a serial entrepreneur with a proven track record in insurance having built cutting-edge companies Pie Insurance and Valen Analytics. His background of combining technology and analytics in insurance provides Comeryx a unique advantage in delivering the efficiency that the wholesale market demands.”
Oleg Ilichev, Managing Partner at Altai Ventures
“The E&S market for small businesses has long been ripe for a technology-driven approach that doesn’t compromise on underwriting rigor. We are proud to support redefining how these essential coverages are delivered to the small business artisan contractor segment.”
Mike Mansell, Principal at American Family Ventures
