CoverForce, the New York-based commercial insurance distribution platform, has launched a Startup Program designed to help early-stage companies enter the commercial insurance market without spending months or years building the infrastructure needed to launch a digital brokerage.
The programme brings together carrier connectivity, market access and educational resources for founders looking to build digital insurance businesses. CoverForce said the offering is designed to allow eligible startups to begin quoting and binding policies within days, rather than working through the lengthy process traditionally required to establish a new brokerage.
One of the biggest hurdles for new entrants is securing appointments with insurance carriers. Brokerages typically need to establish a licensed entity, obtain producer and entity licences across the states where they operate, secure individual carrier appointments and then build technical connections to each carrier before they can begin distributing policies.
That process can require significant capital and specialist industry knowledge. CoverForce has partnered with Amwins DAIS to give programme participants preferential access to established appointments, allowing them to begin quoting and binding while they work towards establishing their own carrier relationships.
The programme also gives startups discounted access to CoverForce’s quoting and binding infrastructure, with pricing based on application volumes. Its single API connects brokerages, wholesalers, MGAs and startups to more than 60 carriers, providing real-time access to appetite, quotes and binding across General Liability, Business Owners Policy, Workers’ Compensation and Professional Liability.
CoverForce is also providing training resources covering commercial insurance terminology and the practical steps involved in establishing a digital brokerage. The initial programme is open to stealth, incubated, venture-backed and accelerator-backed companies with newly established books, as well as startups looking to add commercial insurance distribution to an existing product.
The company said the programme builds on activity already taking place across its platform. More than a dozen digital brokerage startups are currently building on CoverForce, with several reaching live multi-carrier quoting within 30 days of starting work.
CoverForce operates as infrastructure rather than an insurance intermediary. It is neither a broker of record nor a market access provider, allowing brokerages, wholesalers, MGAs and startups to use its technology without competing directly with them. CB Insights named CoverForce among its 50 most innovative InsurTech startups in 2025. Its backers include Nyca Partners, QED and Insight Partners.
CoverForce co-founder and CEO Cyrus Karai said, “With this type of offering, we believe any company can be an insurtech. This was not possible five years ago. Every piece – the carriers, the appointments, the technology, the knowledge – existed in isolation, but no one had assembled them into something a small team could actually pick up and use. That is what we have built, and we are starting with early-stage founders who stand to gain the most from it.”
Rosella co-founder and CTO Chris Dwyer added, “If you’re building an AI-native brokerage, you can’t do much programmatically without API access to carriers – and building those integrations ourselves would have taken years. CoverForce gives us the API connectivity we need without having to build all that plumbing ourselves, so all of our engineering time can stay focused on our product.”
Broker Buddha founder and CEO Jason Keck also commented, “Brokers have spent years digitizing the front end of the application process, only to rekey the same data into carrier portals on the back end. CoverForce closes that gap for us. One API connection puts real-time quotes in front of our agencies without us building and maintaining carrier integrations ourselves.”
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