London-based Ancep has raised $8.5M to build AI agents for commercial insurance brokers, targeting the smaller deals that brokers often turn away because they take too much time to handle relative to the commission they bring in.
The funding round was led by Creandum, with participation from Kleiner Perkins and Vicus Ventures. Angel investors include Christa Davies, former finance chief at insurance broker Aon, and executives from OpenAI, Anthropic and Google DeepMind.
The economics of commercial insurance make smaller clients difficult to serve. A broker may need to do much the same work to arrange cover for a policy worth a few hundred pounds in commission as for one worth tens of thousands.
Many brokers therefore decline smaller risks or leave them until larger, more profitable accounts have been dealt with.
Ancep estimates that these smaller risks account for up to 30% of the business brokers encounter, and that around half could be placed profitably. For a large brokerage, the company says, taking on this business could add 5% to 10% in revenue.
There is also pressure to find new sources of income. Global commercial insurance prices fell 6% in the second quarter of 2026, marking their eighth consecutive quarterly decline, according to Marsh. Lower prices leave brokers with less room to grow revenue from existing clients.
Ancep’s agents take care of much of the administrative work involved in arranging cover. They read client requests, prepare standard documents and collect quotes from insurers through email, online portals or direct connections. They also operate within the software brokers already use, which the company says makes implementation quicker.
Brokers remain responsible for the decisions. Only an authorised broker can agree to coverage, and the team reviews the agents’ work. Client data is kept separate.
The software is already being used by ACIC Financial Advisory, one of Austria’s largest credit insurance brokers, as well as a top-ten UK broker and part of a leading US brokerage. At one customer, revenue increased by 10% within six weeks, Ancep said.
The company charges a share of the additional value generated by its agents rather than a fixed subscription fee.
“What we sell is net new revenue,” said Gagan Khurana, Ancep’s co-founder and chief executive.
While much of the discussion around AI in insurance centres on whether it will replace brokers, Ancep is building its business around them. Its initial target is to work with the world’s 20 largest brokerages.
Khurana founded the company this year with chief technology officer Jake Turner. The two previously worked together at Scope AI, which develops AI software for the testing and inspection industry. Ancep will use the new funding to expand the business and hire more staff.
It joins a growing group of start-ups applying AI to insurance. Earlier this year, Poetic raised $50M from OpenAI to automate underwriting.