While working in management consulting at McKinsey, Luis Pino began to see the pain points in insurance industry operations. He believed that agencies needed better technology. Later, Pino was the first employee hired by CoverWallet, a digital insurance agency, where he helped build the company from the ground up.
Pino used his experiences to launch Agentero, a digital insurance network. Agentero grew from the problem that the insurance industry is too hyper-fragmented, said Pino, CEO and founder. Through the platform, carriers can access hundreds of agents.
“The problem that we solve for the carriers is that, if you're a carrier, you don't want to manage a hyper-fragmented channel that is not tech-enabled,” Pino said. “So, we abstract those problems. And through our platform, carriers can access hundreds of agents, all of which are tech-enabled because they use our technology. And, then, for the agents, we give them a unified point of access to multiple carriers.”
Pino said that Agentero views agents as its primary customers.
“We believe in the combination of the human touch and technology so that trusted advisors and agents is what we stand for,” said Pino. “The thing is that agents are a force of the distribution. And so we have to interact with the people that they interact with, which is carriers and policyholders.”
The technology allows agents to have a unified point of access to multiple carriers as well as build profiles of customers and prospects. Agentero’s predictive pipeline generates opportunities for agents and their customers.
“Now, what we're doing is scaling operations and adding padding to what we're offering,” said Pino. “We're not looking into adding a completely different line of business or anything like that.”
After their most recent round of funding, a Series A round, led by Alma Mundi Ventures, raised $13.5 million, Agentero has plans to add new carriers and get more agencies to sign up.
The company has proven its model and plans to become more solid, Pino said.
“I got another question from another reporter like, ‘Hey, are you like disruptors or enablers?’” said Pino. “It's a little bit of both right? What we're doing is bringing that whole tech innovation to the biggest distribution channel.”
