Please welcome Koffie, a digital insurer driving the trucking industry forward

Lerer Hippeau
Lerer Hippeau

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Meet Koffie, the latest addition to Lerer Hippeau’s portfolio.

HQ: New York

Cofounders: Mike Dorfman and Ian White

The problem: The $800 billion trucking industry is core to the U.S. economy as the movement of goods and supplies gets us what we need, when we need it. Underlying it is trucking insurance, which hasn’t kept up with the sector’s broader digital transformation. With consistent losses, insufficient underwriting, wait times and costly expenses, insurance can prove a headache for even the safest fleets, brokers, and truckers.

Koffie’s solution: Koffie is a digital insurer that offers the best insurance rates to trucking fleets. The insurtech company is the first to build safety technology into underwriting, pricing, and loss control and use real time data and machine learning to offer rapid, custom policies for today’s truckers. By prioritizing safety, Koffie rewards them with lower premiums than traditional insurers.

Origin story: Mike grew up in and around trucking as the fourth generation of his family’s trucking and transportation insurance brokerage. He brings with him intimate knowledge of the space and long-held relationships with motor and insurance carriers. Ian comes from a data background, with more than 15 years in tech and financial services. Combined, they bring industry expertise and a data-forward approach to an industry ripe for improvement.

Why we’re betting on it: Insurance is the third-largest line item, after fuel and drivers, for small and medium-sized trucking companies, and annual insurance costs are rising materially year-over-year. Today, trucking insurance is a $30 billion annual market, yet insurance companies are losing money due to high pay-outs and litigation. Koffie’s aim is to improve margins for the safest trucking companies, which will drive forward digital transformation in transportation, and reduce preventable road fatalities. Mike and Ian bring the right experience to tackle this frustration in the trucking industry and make roads safer for everyone.

Our take: Trucking is a massive market as two-thirds of all goods travel by roads in the U.S. As we’ve seen with our investment in digital freight marketplace Transfix, there are clear opportunities to drive digital transformation in a space that is so critical to the economy. Moving into the future, technology solutions around trucking and logistics will power the movement of goods, and insurance will play a key role in ensuring and rewarding safety on the roads. We believe Koffie will sit in the driver’s seat.

Further reading: “Koffie Labs raises $4.5M to transform trucking carrier insurance” via FreightWaves.

Learn about careers at Koffie Labs.

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Lerer Hippeau
Lerer Hippeau

Lerer Hippeau is the most active early-stage venture capital fund in New York.