Meshed, the UK’s First AI Insurance Broker, Raises £950K Pre-Seed to Transform SME Insurance Market

Meshed, the UK’s first AI-native insurance broker, today announced the closing of its oversubscribed £950K pre-seed round, backed by Haatch, Aviva via Founders Factory, Exponential Science Foundation, and angels.

The funding will help Meshed rebuild the commercial insurance brokerage model with AI, cutting manual processes and administrative costs to lower commissions and customer premiums.

“After nearly 20 years in the industry, I’ve seen just how little has changed,” said Meshed CEO Mark Costello. “Insurance is still too reliant on paperwork, underinsurance is far too common, and fees are often higher than they should be. We built Meshed to change that, to bring SMEs’ costs down, give them the right protection and make the whole process faster, simpler, and more transparent.”

Rooted in Glasgow and London, Meshed tackles a pressing issue: approximately 80% of UK SMEs are significantly underinsured, largely due to outdated brokerage practices and inefficient manual operations.

Arslan Hannani, Chief Innovation Officer of Aviva, said: “We always want to be on the leading edge of enabling our customers to protect themselves as much as they possibly need to and can. In order to do that, we need to keep finding the latest and the brightest [start-ups].”

Hannani noted, “We have to think about the founding team, the idea, the quality of the founders,” and said that with Meshed, “it was pretty easy for us to get on board.”

Meshed’s AI-powered platform introduces agents to support different elements of the broker experience, including browser use agents for quoting and voice agents for data collection, freeing human brokers to focus on client relationships and high-value advice.

Meshed was recently authorised as an Appointed Representative by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). They have secured 51 insurer agency agreements and can support a wide range of commercial insurance needs, from property and liability to professional indemnity and cyber. Early customers have already reported up to 52% in savings on their insurance.

Meshed will use the raised funds to further advance its platform’s capabilities in predictive analytics, risk management, and customer experience.