Loadsure Raises $11M Series A to Scale the World's First Transactional Freight Cargo Insurance Platform
April 23, 2024
Loadsure, a London-based insurtech Managing General Agent (MGA) and Lloyd's of London coverholder, has raised $11 million in a Series A funding round led by MMC Ventures, alongside Crowley, a US-based global maritime, energy, and logistics company, and existing investor Insurtech Gateway. The capital will be used to scale Loadsure's team, accelerate development of its proprietary smart technology, expand its global reach, and deepen its distribution through freight management platforms and transportation management systems worldwide. The round follows an earlier £1.1 million seed round in 2020, also led by Insurtech Gateway.
Loadsure was founded in 2018 by Johnny McCord, a veteran cargo broker with more than 18 years of experience who had spent his career dealing with the chronic inadequacy of the insurance options available to freight brokers and shippers. McCord had previously built business as a broker at Lochain Patrick and as a founding member of Roanoake International, building books of business that included major names in retail, aviation, and entertainment. In every context, he encountered the same problem: the cargo insurance market had been built for a different era and had not kept pace with the just-in-time, high-velocity, multi-carrier supply chains that define modern freight. Traditional cargo insurance required days of underwriting, manual paper processes, and flat-rate premiums that could not reflect the actual risk of an individual shipment, making it uneconomical for brokers to insure the vast majority of loads they moved, particularly in the spot freight market.
Loadsure was built to change this from the ground up. The company developed the industry's first fully digital end-to-end cargo insurance platform, offering brokers, shippers, and carriers the ability to obtain instant insurance coverage for individual shipments in under 40 seconds. Cover can be accessed directly through Loadsure's web portal or, crucially, embedded directly into the transportation management systems and freight marketplaces that brokers and shippers already use, eliminating the need for any change in workflow. When a load is booked, insurance is automatically offered and can be bound instantly, with premiums dynamically priced using Loadsure's predictive analytics engine. Claims are processed in minutes rather than days. By the time of the Series A, Loadsure had obtained Lloyd's coverholder status (the only such approval granted in 2019's highly restrictive market), achieved FCA authorisation, and established integrations with major freight platforms in the US, including a commercial agreement with Amwins, North America's largest wholesale insurance distributor.
The market Loadsure is attacking is vast and structurally underserved. Industry estimates suggest that between 60 and 90 percent of cargo moving through the spot freight market travels without adequate insurance, a consequence of the friction and cost of traditional products rather than any indifference to risk on the part of shippers. Crowley's participation in the Series A reflects not only a financial investment but a strategic endorsement from a major player in the supply chain industry that sees Loadsure as a natural partner for the modernisation of freight risk management.
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