led the latest financing, which the company described as “preemptive.” Previous lead backers and also doubled down “significantly.”

Put simply, Nirvana’s goal is to build “the world’s first AI-powered operating system for insurance.” The startup uses real-time driving telematics and 30 billion miles of truck-driving data to build and manage insurance policies for truckers.

CEO started Nirvana in 2021 after spending years running product at , an AI-powered fleet management and safety platform. There, he said, he saw firsthand how heavily safe and responsible trucking fleets “were penalized by the rising costs of one-size-fits-all insurance rates based on old industry data.”

“It was survival stakes,” he recalled. “Expensive policies literally drove some fleets out of business.”

His goal with Nirvana is to use the telematics data those fleets already generate “to build a more fair and transparent model.” Nirvana has trained its models on more than 30 billion driving miles and vehicles’ telematics that show details such as speed, selected routes and driver behavior.

“This allows us to reward safe fleets with more accurate and often lower premiums, helping them save money and making roads safe,” Goel told Crunchbase News. He also claims the company is able to underwrite “with speed and precision” and “price risk in real time.”

On top of providing insurance, Nirvana claims it gives fleets the tools to reduce accidents before they happen.

The raise comes at a time when insurtech funding overall is down, and deal counts are at a multiyear record low. So far in 2025, global insurance-related startups have pulled in about $4 billion in seed-through growth-stage financing, per Crunchbase — less than one-fourth of the 2021 peak dollars raised — with deal counts also on the decline.

VCs bet Nirvana can transform ‘trillion-dollar industry stuck in the past’

Nirvana raised its $3.2 million seed round in January 2021, co-led by General Catalyst and Lightspeed. In total, it has raised more than $260 million in funding.

While Goel declined to reveal hard revenue figures, he said that Nirvana has doubled its year-over-year premium growth. It has also doubled its staff to around 200 compared to a year ago.

Nirvana says it serves “thousands” of motor carriers. Its customers range from single-owner and -operator carriers to fleets with more than 500 trucks.

The startup’s revenue model is to charge an annual insurance term with upfront discounts based on the historical telematics data it analyzes with its proprietary models.

Interestingly, Nirvana is not Goel’s first startup venture. Besides serving as the VP/GM of fleet at Samsara, he also co-founded , a digital health startup.

, partner at Valor Equity Partners, said in a release that this round isn’t just about reinforcing Nirvana’s approach to proprietary telematics data, deep machine learning expertise, and execution in underwriting and claims.

“It’s an opportunity for us to stake a claim in redefining an industry and exploring how Nirvana will apply its “N of 1” AI capabilities to benefit customers beyond market-leading insurance products,” he said.

Lightspeed partner believes that Nirvana has “executed flawlessly” since the firm first invested in its seed round. He said: “Commercial insurance is a trillion-dollar industry stuck in the past, and it’s been incredible to see how quickly Nirvana’s AI models have been able to deliver material benefits to customers.”

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• Exclusive: Trucker’s Son Bucks Logistics Funding Decline With $40M Raise For Startup Alvys

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The Palo Alto, California-based startup, which specializes in small business insurance products, has now raised more than $1.1 billion since being founded in 2016, per the company.

The deal forms a new strategic partnership with Allstate and deepens an existing reinsurance relationship with Allianz.

“We founded NEXT because we saw an opportunity to help millions of small and microbusinesses across the U.S. and made it our mission to help entrepreneurs thrive,” co-founder and CEO said in a release. “Building on our existing support, we are excited to welcome Allianz X and Allstate as investors, deepen our reinsurance relationship with Allianz Re, and foster a meaningful partnership with Allstate to offer millions of their customers our one-stop-shop small business insurance offering.”

Interestingly, Next did not offer a valuation with the new round. The company was valued at $4 billion in April 2021 when it raised a $250 million Series E led by and . Many valuations of startups, however, have dropped since then.

Next, which uses AI and machine learning to help with the purchasing process and provide coverages, serves more than 500,000 business owners. It has committed to serving the more than 33 million small businesses in the U.S. moving forward.

Insurtech funding

The round is one of the largest raised this year in the insurtech industry.

Per Crunchbase , insurtech startups have raised nearly $11 billion this year — however, $6.5 billion of that was ’s Series I raise in March.

Last year, startups in the sector raised almost $9.2 billion, while in 2021 — a record year for venture funding — insurtech firms saw nearly $16 billion in funding.

Related reading:

• The 10 Biggest Rounds Of March: Stripe Raises Huge $6.5B Round, HR-tech Startup Rippling Lands $500M

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As we’ve documented several times over the past few quarters, venture-backed companies that went public via SPAC deals have mostly posted exceedingly poor returns. As we revisit a previously curated list of , it’s clear they’re closing out the year at a particularly low point.

How bad? Out of a selected set of 50 completed SPAC deals, at least 24 were trading below $1 per share 1. Because most blank-check companies initially price at $10 per share, that means they’re down 90% or more to date.

Here’s a list2 of the 24 sub-$1 names from our sample:

No sector has been spared, as one can see from the broad array of industries represented among these beaten-down stocks. It includes autonomous driving (, ), electric vehicles (, , ), telehealth (, ), and real estate (, ), among others.

What’s also noteworthy is that the vast majority are trading at a lower point than they were a couple quarters ago. So no, things aren’t looking up yet.

And that’s not the worst

And trading below $1 isn’t necessarily the worst fate for a troubled SPAC. A few others have either declared bankruptcy or sold to acquirers for an even smaller pittance of their former price. 

One of the higher-profile casualties was , a mobile retail company founded by former store executive , which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in June. The company had previously raised more than $230 million in known venture funding from backers including , and , and another $250 million from SPAC investors.

In the biotech space, meanwhile, , a developer of androgen-based medicines that went public in September 2021, is also winding down. The company announced in September that it has filed for Chapter 11 and is selling its sole commercial asset, a therapeutic for testosterone deficiency.

, the pay-per-mile car insurance provider, also took a hit. The one-time unicorn sold to fellow insurtech at a valuation representing a roughly 95% cut from Metromile’s peak public share price.

Rounding out the list, , a used car marketplace, sold this month to , a used auto e-commerce platform trading for 23 cents a share, in a deal that appears to be valued at roughly $20 million. Carlotz previously raised over $160 million in venture and SPAC-related financing.

Any success stories out there?

No company on our sample list of 50 currently has shares trading above the $10 break-even threshold for SPAC deals. The top performer — consumer health platform — was recently trading at a little over $7.

Meanwhile, there are 15 companies with shares between $1 and $2, listed below:

The remaining companies on our list are trading between $2 and $7. 

This story isn’t over

For anyone who binge-watches drama shows, the SPAC plotline is looking sort of familiar. We’re at that point where the protagonist is looking outmatched and on the cusp of defeat. 

If this was Hollywood, of course, the protagonist would suddenly summon the strength for a big comeback, overcome foes and declare victory. But we’re in the real world, where this kind of underdog story only occasionally plays out. 

At any rate, this does look like the back-against-the-wall moment for many SPACs. It’d be nice if 2023 could bring us some of those much-awaited dramatic turnarounds.

Further Reading

Some Beaten-Down SPACs Recover Amid Tech Rally

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Founded in 2016, Ethos says its mission is to make “modern, ethical life insurance” accessible to the masses through its proprietary technology.

The company claims it makes getting a life insurance policy “fast, easy and inexpensive” by “turning a process that was once like going to the DMV to more like shopping online.” It also claims to “prioritize people over profit,” which is refreshingly noble. Ethos is licensed in 49 states.

The San Francisco-based startup has attracted a bevy of investors in a relatively short amount of time. Existing investors , , and also participated in the latest round, which brings the company’s to $106.5 million. Ethos raised a $35 million last October that was led by Accel, and an $11.5 million Sequoia-led in June 2018.

Besides some of Silicon Valley’s most prominent VCs, Ethos has also raised capital from , actor Robert Downey Jr.’s , NBA player , Arrive, a subsidiary of , and actor .

So, how does it work exactly? A prospective customer can apply and qualify for a policy in about 10 minutes, CEO and co-founder told Crunchbase News last October, without having to go through medical exams or blood tests—as most people do when applying through more traditional life insurance providers. That’s because the company applies data science and predictive analytics to determine an individual’s life expectancy, he said. He and his former Stanford University grad school roommate, , previously founded secondary life insurance marketplace .

Rapid Growth

GV general partner and Ethos board member noted in a written statement that his firm has been “consistently impressed by the company’s commitment to growth, customer traction, and execution to date.” Indeed, Ethos says it’s quadrupled its revenue since last October (although it would not disclose the exact amount). Additionally, it is “insuring thousands of new families every month” and has “tens of thousands” of customers.  Ethos currently has about 90 employees, compared to 35 at the time of its last raise in October.

“The nice thing  is we have the majority of our money left over from the last round. So raising more money was not something we needed to do,” Colis told Crunchbase News. Rather, he added, it was more about being able to more optimally take advantage of market conditions. As for Austin, Colis said the city offered “great access to talent.”

“In general, there is a similar growth and entrepreneurial mindset going on in the city that is similar to what we see in San Francisco,” he told Crunchbase News. (Ethos joins a bunch of other companies that have either relocated to, or opened a secondary office in, Austin in recent years.)

The company plans to use its latest capital toward “continued momentum, supporting product refinement, technical team hires,” according to Colis.

Ethos is just one of a number of startups working to digitize the insurance industry. Last week, Sophia Kunthara reported that Ohio-based car insurance startup was set to raise $350 million in a funding round that would bring the company’s valuation to $3.65 billion. Like Root, has also gained traction from investors looking to influence the user-led future of policy purchases. Also in July 2018, online small business insurance provider raised $83 million in a led by .

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Founded in 2010, CoverHound aims to help individuals and small and medium-size business (SMBs) owners access the best rates they can through its online marketplace. The company partners with insurance partners including Liberty Mutual, Nationwide, and Progressive, according to its website, and acts as an online broker helping people find and compare insurance quotes, much like Priceline and Expedia do for flights and hotels. According to the company, it has sold “more than 200,000” business and personal policies since its inception.

In 2016 CoverHound founded a cybersecurity-focused subsidiary which helps SMBs identify vulnerabilities, connect with cybersecurity companies for prevention, and find insurers for cost mitigation.

Between credit cards and cloud computing, our lives have migrated online. And while that’s convenient for us and for many of the businesses that leverage that technology, it also puts us at risk of new types of vulnerabilities. So having a safety net to potentially lower the cost of addressing those issues is helpful.

As we have reported in the past, cybersecurity is a critical piece of the business puzzle, particularly concerning customer data protection. But while most people have been exposed to cybersecurity through coverage of Facebook breaches, government hacks, and other large-scale issues, the importance of cybersecurity also impacts small business owners.

“All companies need cyber insurance,” CoverHound CEO Keith Moore told Crunchbase News in an email. “In fact, data shows that 86 percent of the total SMBs shopping for cyber insurance come from industries outside of computer, software, or IT.” Moore also wrote that more enterprises are requiring their vendors to carry cyber insurance as well.

According to an  article, some insurers estimate that premiums in the cyber insurance industry could reach upwards of $8 billion by 2020, compared to $4 billion in 2018. The article addressed the complicated nature of cybersecurity costs relative to other types of damage. Part of that cost estimation comes down to mitigating the breach when it happens and dealing with claims calls from customers that were affected by a possible breach.

CoverHound’s $58 million Series D will enable its geographical expansion, as the company plans to open an office in Charlotte, North Carolina and to expand to Japan (one of its investors, MS&AD is a Japan-based insurance group). Further, it will also allow the company to partner with more insurance providers, particularly for its cybersecurity-focused subsidiary.

While insurance can be equally stressful and opaque, some tech teams are trying to make it less confusing and more tech-forward, and the funding comes at a time when companies in insurance categories have attracted a significant amount of funding from investors. In the past year, Crunchbase News has spoken to startups trying to tackle insurance pricing, use cell phone data to rate driving behavior and change the cost structure of car insurance, reimagine life insurance, and use data-driven quoting for home insurance.

Below are some notable insurtech companies that have recently attracted investors.

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That’s right, picked up in a Series C. The round was led by and . Other participants included , , and others.

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This is the third known financing for the company, which raised a back in January led by Comcast and Fifth Wall. The round brings the company’s total known funding to.

As a refresher, Hippo, which was founded in 2015 and officially launched last year, focuses on home insurance. The company, which works with insurance partners that underwrite the policies, claims that its main differentiator is the quick sign-up model (you can get a quote in one minute), which is driven by data and artificial intelligence.

Per the company’s , since its Series B in January Hippo launched in 11 states. Its coverage areas now include California, Nevada, Arizona, Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Missouri, Illinois, Maryland, among other states, according to its .

Of course, Hippo is not the only company focused on home insurance. Its competitors include , which is also data and AI-driven. That startup provides home and renters insurance and has raised since its founding in 2018.

The U.S. insurtech industry, generally, has grown significantly in the past year. Companies like , which is a mobile-first company focused on car insurance, and , which provides insurance to small business owners, have been raking in venture capital. For evidence, take a look at the chart below.

Investment in insurtech companies has reached over $1.6 billion this year alone, an increase of about 50 percent from 2017, according to Crunchbase.

Buying quickly online has been the norm for car and health insurance for some time now. These days more companies are moving into mobile access and relying on data aggregation and machine learning to produce quotes. Clearly, investors are confident that this trend will continue across many insurance categories from cars, to homes, to health.

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