Blog

As we close the chapter on 2024, we’re thrilled to share some of the milestones and moments that defined this transformative year for Ascend. Here’s a look at how we grew, innovated, and contributed to the insurance ecosystem in 2024.

CB Insights today named Ascend to its third annual Insurtech 50, showcasing the 50 most promising private insurtech companies in the world.

Ascend announced today its recognition as a 2024 Global 5-Star Technology Provider by Insurance Business America.

Ascend, the pioneering provider of financial operations automation software, is thrilled to announce its latest partnership with Steele Insurance Agency, a distinguished network of agents dedicated to providing exceptional insurance services.

Marquee Insurance Group (MIG) recognized they had bottlenecks in their accounting and financing processes working with their current payments and financing partners. They wanted to find a solution that could holistically improve back office processes and decrease the amount of time the team was spending on billing, collections, and accounting.

INSURICA Direct, the digital division of INSURICA Inc., sought a better way to streamline payment options for agency bill policies post placement creating a more efficient and compliant experience. The existing workflow was slow and cumbersome – causing a lot of extra work for the team and poor experience for clients.

Cennairus Cyber, a wholesale insurance brokerage specializing in cyber and technology errors and omissions insurance, announces its partnership with Ascend, the industry’s premier financial operations automation platform, to streamline finance operations unique to wholesale insurance brokerages.

Nirvana Insurance and Ascend join forces to deliver an unmatched customer experience. Nirvana Insurance is a leader in data-driven fleet insurance and together we will provide a modern insurance experience by elevating billing experiences, expediting reconciliations, and maximizing operational efficiencies.

2023 was an exciting year for Ascend as we saw more of our ambitions turn into realities. A quick recap of all of our highlights of last year to celebrate our customers and the product we've been able to build together!

Ascend, the leading provider of financial operations automation software to the insurance industry, is proud to announce its strategic partnership with Embroker, a pioneering digital platform making it radically simple to secure business insurance. This collaboration aims to revolutionize the insurance industry by combining Ascend’s cutting-edge financial automation solutions with Embroker’s expertise in providing tailored, innovative insurance products for business risk profiles and verticals.

Ascend today announced that Acrisure, the global Fintech leader, will leverage its premier financial operations automation platform. Initially, Acrisure will leverage Ascend to streamline billing, financing, and carrier payable workflows within its small commercial lines accounts. Ascend's cutting-edge platform features comprehensive automation of accounts receivable and accounts payable workflows within the post-placement agency billing process.

Ascend announced today its acceptance into the Vertafore® Orange Partner Program. Ascend’s payments and premium financing solution integrates with Vertafore’s AMS360®, allowing participating agencies to automate steps in their workflows related to premium collection, premium financing and accounting.

Ascend, the leading financial operations automation platform, is proud to announce it has been chosen by Christensen Group, the 72nd largest independent brokerage in the US, to improve agency productivity and efficiency by streamlining agency bill and financing workflows. By adding Ascend as a partner, Christensen Group will increase its operational efficiency and provide a best-in-class experience for its customers. 

INSURICA, one of the largest privately held independent insurance agencies in the nation, has selected Ascend, the leading financial operations automation platform, to advance their commitment to innovation, elevate the client experience, and drive increased efficiency across their operations.

This past quarter our team has been heads down focused on expanding Ascend’s product offering and improving the agency and insured experience. Here's a recap of the improvements we’ve made.

Ascend, the leading financial operations automation platform, has been chosen by Millennial SpecialtyInsurance, LLC, an indirect subsidiary of BRP Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: BRP), dba Founder Shield (“Founder Shield”), to modernize their agency bill workflows. Ascend will streamline the invoicing, premium financing, and carrier payables process for Founder Shield, increasing productivity and efficiency as well as improving the customer payment experience.

Steadily, America's top-rated landlord insurance company who recently raised a Series B round in July, has chosen Ascend, the industry-leading financial operations automation platform, to enhance operational efficiency and accelerate its mission to make landlord insurance fast, easy, and affordable.

Steward Risk, established in 2022 to serve the unique needs of middle-market clients in the construction, energy, manufacturing, and real estate industries has launched an automated financial operations solution by integrating with Ascend, the industry-leading financial operations automation platform and Veruna, a leading innovator in insurance agency management systems (AMS).

Vouch, the leader in business insurance for VC-backed startups, has deepened integrations with Ascend, the first financial operations automation platform built for insurance, to enhance operational efficiency and support growth ambitions in 2023 and beyond. 

Ascend, the leading financial operations automation platform, announced it has entered into an agreement with NFP, a leading property and casualty broker, benefits consultant, wealth manager, and retirement plan advisor. As part of the agreement, NFP will deploy Ascend’s billing technology platform, which will offer its insurance clients an automated, all-in-one solution to financing, collections, and payables. 

Three Arbor Insurance automated costly financial and accounting operations like collections, financing, payables, and reconciliations - increasing revenue and decreasing expenses.

StartSure’s accounting team automated all their agency bill related AR / AP processes - allowing for quick, efficient, and error-free reconciliations.With this solution, StartSure invested in the ability to grow without incurring large back office costs to support what would have been a mountain of administrative tasks and additional paperwork.

Pathpoint, a wholesaler for small commercial E&S coverage, partnered with Ascend to launch PathPay - an industry-first ability for wholesalers to offer retail agents the option to use agency bill or a true direct bill experience, while reducing the back office resources spent on accounts payables and receivables.

Bulldog Insurance partnered with Ascend to automate all their agency bill payment workflows such as invoicing, endorsements, and premium financing - leading to an increase in their bottom line due to operational efficiency and an increase in premium financing revenue.

Looking back at where we were last year in Q1 versus what we accomplished this year so far, we can’t be more excited with the progress we’ve made to help make agents’ lives easier. Here are some of our highlights from our past quarter!

In insurance, sometimes we like to think it’s as simple as understanding our insureds, their risk profiles, and making sure they have the right coverage for their needs. In this blog, we will dive into one of the more overlooked aspects of operating your agency in a fiscally responsible way: Trust Accounting.

Over the past year, we've grown to help over 500+ organizations simplify their payments process. We worked closely with our customers to build features that solve real problems for them - here's a highlight of some that our customers love the most!

Ascend provided CrossFit RRG with a modern point-of-sale checkout experience for premium financing. This improved their insureds’ experience and retention related to non-pay cancellations, consequently saving their team time and money.

Ascend is excited to share that PIIAC has named us their newest recommended payments provider to their community of 2,500 independent agents.

Q3 was another packed quarter for new features. We wanted to highlight some of our favorites: our simple renewals workflow, flexible loan terms, and the insured payments portal.

With the Federal Reserve hiking interest rates by 0.75% for the third time in a row to fight inflation and fears of recession, we took a look at how the macroeconomic climate have impacted business owners spending patterns.

Endorsements don't have to be complicated. Ascend's endorsement flow can help agents meet their insureds' changing policy needs with ease - allowing them to further strengthen the agent / client relationship.

Ascend is excited to announce our integration with HawkSoft. This integration will help agents streamline their workflows within HawkSoft from quoting all the way to collecting payments.

We're excited to announce our very first AMS integration - with NowCerts. With this integration, agents will be able to automatically create Ascend checkout links inside the NowCerts dashboard with the click of a button.

Q2 was focused on payments flexibility - check out all the features we added to support agents' ever changing needs: endorsements, downpayment adjustments, cancelations, and more.

How big will non-admitted markets be in a decade? Growing at double digit rates and becoming a larger and larger % of the overall P/C market, excess and surplus market trends continue to point upwards as admitted carriers grapple the additional risk factors of today and in the future.

Michael Franke, owner of Franke Insurance Services, shares his journey from starting as a captive agent at Allstate and making the transition to independent agency owner to have more freedom to truly be his own boss and have control to run his agency how he sees fit.

Amos Levy plays a unique role at Flexport, a company more known for its freight logistics business, by building out its insurance product to expand the service offerings of the company. He shares insights he's picked up along the way for anyone interested in how to succeed in the insurance space.

2022 has gotten off to a mega start for Ascend - we've shipped over 20 different features last quarter and wanted to highlight some of our agents' favorites.

This week's Ask An Agent we chat with Sean Goral from Legacy Insurance Group. Sean made the leap from captive to independent after spending 5 years at Liberty Mutual. We discuss how independent agents have the challenge of not knowing what they don't know until they educate themselves.

Introducing AAA (Ask An Agent), a short form interview series where we chat to agents and owners about the good, bad, and unexpected experiences of running an independent agency. This week, we talk to Amit Kalra, VP of Insurance at billy, an agency based in New York.

Our top podcasts for independent insurance agents to follow as they look to balance the responsibilities of protecting their clients as insurance agents but also owning and operating a business. These podcasts will help agents learn about new technologies, strategies, and risks that will impact their businesses now and in the future.

When we started Ascend in March 2021 we knew first-hand the need for a payments infrastructure product for insurance. However, what surprised us as we went to market was the degree of pain insurance distributors are feeling and the subsequent market pull for Ascend’s payments solution. We are excited to implement this new round of financing with support from incredible partners and investors, to keep up with the demand for Ascend’s solution and meet the needs of our current and potential customers in this critically important market. 

With 2021 quickly coming to an end, it’s the time of year when people begin to reflect on the past and make way for the future. So many people are pondering what’s on the horizon for the insurance industry. What’s the next big thing in 2022? What’s going to be the defining moment or defining technology of the next year? What’s going to reshape the insurtech space over the course of the next 12 months?

Insurance, and especially its underlying enabling technologies, is often invisible yet it has become one of the most powerful processes that enables innovation further along the value chain. Today we’re excited to announce our seed round at Ascend, the first modern insurance payments platform.

Rob Galbraith has been called “the patron saint of insurtech,” “a global insurtech thought leader,” “a wonderful motivation,” “an inspiration,” “a mentor to many in the insurance industry,” “the prophet,” and “the most interesting man in insurance.” He is the author of the international bestselling book The End Of Insurance As We Know It, which has been a runaway success since its release in 2019. Rob is a popular keynote speaker who has shared his unique insights at numerous events around the globe on the topics of innovation, insurtech and the future of insurance.

Billy Van Jura is the Founder of Birchyard, an insurance brokerage that represents a wide range of insurance plans and types, adjusting to the individual needs of their customers. He actively manages a data driven, buying process oriented company in the personal insurance space. Billy has over 18 years of experience in the insurance industry, ranging from a captive sales agent with a captive carrier to a leader in insurtech. The following are excerpts from a conversation between Billy and Andrew Wynn, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Ascend, the first modern insurance payments platform that provides automated all-in-one financing, collections, and payables.

Ryan Hanley is the founder and president of Rogue Risk, a national, tech-enabled independent insurance agency helping small businesses put their insurance on autopilot. Ryan is also the creator of The Ryan Hanley Show, the insurance industry’s most popular podcast. He has performed over 200 keynotes to insurance audiences over the last decade, helping independent insurance agents across the country digitize their business.

Brett Fulmer is the Managing Broker at Newport Beach Insurance Center LLC, where he is helping build out their digital strategy, to meet Personal, Commercial and Life Insurance needs fluidly nationwide. He is also the US Ambassador of FINAEO (Finaeo.com), a Toronto-based insurtech startup. They are building the Amazon of Insurance for financial planners, by digitizing the fabric of one of the oldest industries in the world. Brett assists with Marketing, Compliance, and Partnerships. He was also an Advisor to Juniper Labs, acquired by NEXT Insurance, and is regularly involved in SEED-stage startup conversations.

Jeff Shi, Chief Visionary Officer at Quantum Assurance International, which has built a successful franchise of independent agents. The following are excerpts from a conversation between Jeff and Andrew Wynn, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Ascend, the first modern insurance payments platform that provides automated all-in-one financing, collections, and payables. Jeff opens up about his eclectic, successful background as a salesman and entrepreneur. Based on over a decade of experience in insurance, Jeff also shares thoughts on the challenges our industry faces as well as the best path ahead.

Bryan Falchuk is the Founder & Managing Partner at Insurance Evolution Partners, which advises carriers and their partners on how to navigate an evolving industry facing disruption and change. Bryan spent over 20 years in the insurance industry, including serving as Head of Claims for Hiscox USA and leading Growth for insurtech communications solution, Hi Marley. Bryan has also held leadership roles in corporate strategy, operations and distribution at carriers like Liberty Mutual and Beazley. He was a consultant in McKinsey & Company’s insurance practice and is on the advisory boards of several startups focused on the insurance industry. Bryan is an author and public speaker, including several TEDx Talks.