Next Insurance, a Palo Alto, California-based digital insurance company that focuses on small businesses, in August 2018 became a licensed insurance carrier, shedding its brokerage business model.

As a carrier, Next Insurance is able to write policies independently, resulting in better control over underwriting, pricing, and policy wording.

The company now works directly with U.S. state insurance regulators to introduce innovations in the small business insurance market, including on-demand coverage, more advanced uses of AI / Machine Learning for underwriting, and simpler policy language.

The small business market remains under-served and has potential for growth. Among the 30 million small businesses in the U.S. today (99.7% of all businesses), and according to a recent survey, 44% of small businesses operating for at least a year have never had insurance.

Next Insurance CEO and Co-Founder Guy Goldstein claims the new carrier has streamlined the policy purchasing process to the point where the need for insurance agents disappears. Additional features include the “Live Certificate”, a real-time certificate of insurance verification, and an online portal that allows policyholders to add additional insured, update policy or payment information, send verifiable proof of insurance and more.

Next Insurance obtained its first carrier license in Delaware and is currently expanding to all 50 U.S. states.

Investors in Next Insurance include specialty insurer Markel and Munich Re’-The Hartford’s corporate strategic venture arm Munich Re/HSB Ventures, among several others from outside the insurance industry.