Slingshot Insurance, a Minneapolis start-up building software and carrier infrastructure for embedded insurance, came out of stealth on 22 October 2026 with $27m in seed funding.
Rally Ventures and Skyward Group co-led the round, which the company said was oversubscribed. Several property and casualty insurance veterans also invested. The only one named was Jim Hays, who will join Slingshot's board.
The company did not disclose a valuation or say how it would spend the money. Crunchbase News, which reported the round the same day, said Slingshot has six employees and began formal operations on 1 July.
“Traditional carrier infrastructure wasn't built for embedded insurance's risk and economic model.”Ethan Genteman, Co-founder and CEO, Slingshot Insurance
What Slingshot does
Embedded insurance is cover sold as part of another purchase, such as trip cancellation offered when someone books travel. Slingshot builds systems for the managing general agents (MGAs), vertical software platforms and insurance distributors that sell these products. It is aiming first at amateur sports, travel and gig and independent work.
The company argues that these policies are frequent, low in severity and small in premium, which makes them hard to support with the cost structures of established insurers. Its platform uses AI to automate workflows that are often run on spreadsheets, email and older systems, and uses APIs to connect MGAs, distribution platforms and the providers of insurance capital. Slingshot says each decision on the platform can be audited, reconciled and explained.
Chief executive Ethan Genteman gave Crunchbase News an example: a programme with $500,000 in premiums and a 10% margin would earn only $50,000, which he said does not work under the operating models of incumbent carriers. One of the products Slingshot has in mind is a $25 policy covering cancellation or injury for a parent who pays $2,000 for a youth volleyball league.
Customers and business model
Vertical Insure, an embedded insurance MGA, is Slingshot's first customer and design partner. According to the release, it serves more than 750,000 customers with an average premium of $25. Crunchbase News reported that Slingshot's first programme was due to launch in October.
For now Slingshot earns money as a technology provider working alongside outside insurers, charging a 5% fee to administer programmes, Crunchbase News reported. It is trying to acquire an insurer so that it can back policies itself. Genteman told the publication that the company was not yet a carrier but was close to completing that deal.
The company's release cited industry forecasts that embedded insurance could grow from about 3% of global property and casualty premiums to nearly 20% over the next decade.
Who is behind it
Genteman was previously chief actuarial officer at Palomar Holdings, which he joined in 2019, and left on 1 July to run Slingshot, according to Crunchbase News. It is his first company as a founder.
Rally Ventures co-founded Slingshot with Genteman, the release said. Crunchbase News reported that the firm has co-founded about eight of its portfolio companies. Justin Kaufenberg, a managing director at Rally Ventures, said in the release that the growth opportunity in insurance lay in small, everyday policies sold at checkout, and that the firm built Slingshot to let MGAs launch products faster.
Crunchbase News also described Brock Noland, chief executive of Vertical Insure, as a Slingshot co-founder. The company's release did not list him as one, naming only Rally Ventures and Genteman. Noland said in the release that carriers' slow approval processes held back his business.
Company website: slingshotinsurance.com