Embroker, a startup that developed a digital brokerage platform for business insurance, is opening an office in Chicago that will rival the size of its home base in San Francisco.The young company, founded last year, only has about 15 employees at its San Francisco office, and one in Boston. It has five employees in Chicago already, and is looking to hire 10 more in the next year, said CEO Matt Miller.
"We're a (business-to-business) company, so we want to be present in major metro areas, both for a talent perspective as well as a sales perspective," Miller said. "We want to be reaching out and actively engaging with companies so they know we're invested in the region and we are willing to grow there."
Embroker's platform, which is still being beta tested, lets business owners apply for, manage and update insurance policies. Most business owners currently have to rely on insurance brokers when they buy insurance, don't fully understand their coverage and much of the process is done on paper, Miller said. The company plans to publicly launch the platform later this year.
Embroker's new Chicago office, at 104 S. Michigan Ave., is set to open Monday. At 4,300 square feet, it has the capacity to accommodate up to 35 employees.
Some senior management will work out of the office, as well as a mixture of software engineers and insurance experts, Miller said.
A more robust presence in Chicago will help Embroker "hire really great insurance talent, which it's a very rich city for that, as well as tech talent, which we want to diversify and not depend only on San Francisco for that," Miller said.
The company recently closed a $12.2 million Series A round of funding, which is helping fuel its growth.