Novella, an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered wholesale insurance broker, has raised $21 million in funding to expand its business, hire agents and develop its proprietary AI platform.
The financing was led by Brewer Lane Ventures, with participation from Box Group; Crystal Venture Partners; SV Angels; Avid Ventures; Verissimo Ventures; Blank Ventures; and global insurance firm Arch.
The New York-based broker has an R&D facility in Tel Aviv, Israel, and has opened offices in Miami, Florida, and Houston, Texas, in 2026, with further U.S. office openings planned for the second quarter of this year, including in Southern California.
“The AI ​​agent handles placement, binding, form comparison, policy review, subjectivity collection, inspection, billing, endorsements, renewals and more. This allows producers to focus 100% of their time on building client relationships and growing books,” said Max Kane, founder and CEO of Novella.
He continued: “We believe that combining world-class producers with world-class artificial intelligence is a recipe for success. Artificial intelligence will make the best producers better at their jobs, allowing them to better serve their clients and focus on building larger, more profitable businesses.”
The company was co-founded in 2024 by Kane, a technology and insurance executive who spent nearly four years at Lemonade; Michael Tsibelman, its chief technology officer who has led software teams at companies such as Microsoft, Gigya and DoControl; and insurance broker Alex Broome, a brokerage executive who has held senior positions at The Baldwin Group and ReShield.
Kane emphasized that Novella believes that AI will not replace insurance producers, but rather help the best insurance producers become “super producers,” and that the industry will focus on the individuals and companies that use AI to empower the best human capital.
Novella sees this as a template for how artificial intelligence can transform other traditional, relationship-driven industries.
Chris Downer, general partner at Brewer Lane Ventures, added: “The nature of wholesale brokerage is about relationships. Our producers need to be closely connected to our retail brokers, so we will be strategically expanding across the country in the coming years.
“Novella is the first wholesaler to effectively blend artificial intelligence and talent. Wholesalers spend years building relationships. Novella makes them better at it — that’s why top brokers are joining the team, and how they’re changing specialty insurance.”
