Founding and Vision

Dakotah Rice, returning to the founder’s seat after the closure of his previous venture Poolit, teamed up with longtime friend and former Poolit CTO Tushar Nair to launch Harper. Drawing on a family background in insurance brokerage, the duo created an AI-native platform named after Rice’s mother’s maiden name. Their goal was to eliminate the hassles founders face when seeking commercial insurance.

Product and Market Position

Harper operates as an almost fully autonomous licensed commercial insurance agency. Leveraging artificial intelligence, the platform matches small‑ to mid‑sized businesses with more than 160 insurance carriers for workers’ compensation, general liability, and professional liability coverage. Tasks that traditionally take five to seven days—such as submission routing, underwriter follow‑ups, and document collection—are completed in one to two days. While a typical human‑led brokerage handles 20 to 30 deals a month, Harper’s AI enables it to support over 1,000 customers monthly and it already serves more than 5,000 clients.

Funding and Investors

Harper announced a combined Series A and seed round totaling $46.8 million. The round was led by Emergence Capital, with participation from Y Combinator and Peak XV Partners. The capital will be used to expand Harper’s engineering team and grow its brand presence.

Competitive Landscape

The insurance brokerage market remains fragmented, with many large players and numerous smaller firms still relying on email and spreadsheets. Harper positions itself against traditional brokerages as well as emerging AI‑native competitors like Gyde and AI‑enhanced firms such as FurtherAI and Vantel, both Y Combinator alumni.

Target Customers and Future Goals

Harper focuses on “middle America,” aiming to serve real‑world businesses such as daycares, manufacturers, car dealerships, local bars, and restaurants. Rice envisions Harper evolving from an insurance provider into a broader partner for entrepreneurs, handling risk, compliance, and back‑office functions to let founders concentrate on their core operations.

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