Novella, an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered wholesale insurance broker, has raised $21 million in capital to expand its presence, hire brokers, and develop its proprietary AI platform.
The funding raise was led by Brewer Lane Ventures, and included Box Group; Crystal Venture Partners; SV Angel; Avid Ventures; Verissimo Ventures; Blank Ventures; and global insurer Arch.
In 2026, the New York-based broker, which has a research and development facility in Tel Aviv, Israel, has opened offices in Miami, Florida, and Houston, Texas, and plans further US openings, including in Southern California, in the second quarter of this year.
Max Kane, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Novella, said, “AI agents handle placement, binding, form comparison, policy review, subjectivity collection, inspections, billing, endorsements, renewals, and more. This allows producers to focus 100% of their time on building client relationships and growing their books.”
He continued, “We believe pairing world-class producers with world-class AI is the recipe for success. AI will make the best producers far better at their job, enabling them to better serve clients and focus on building bigger, more profitable books of business.”
The firm was co-founded in 2024 by Kane, a technology and insurance executive who spent almost four years at Lemonade; Michael Tsibelman, its Chief Technology Officer, who has led software teams at firms such as Microsoft, Gigya and DoControl; and insurance broker Alex Broome, Head of Brokerage, who has held key positions at The Baldwin Group and ReShield.
Kane emphasised that Novella believes that AI won’t replace insurance producers, but help make the best ones “super-producers,” and the industry will concentrate around the people and firms that use AI to empower the best human capital.
Novella sees this as a template for how AI transforms other relationship-driven legacy industries.
Chris Downer, General Partner at Brewer Lane Ventures, added, “Wholesale broking, at heart, is about human relationships. Our producers need to be close to our retail brokers, so we will be expanding strategically across the country over the coming years.
“Novella is the first wholesaler to effectively blend AI 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.”
