Exclusive: Flow Specialty's Iram outlines insurtech’s pivot from SME digital wholesaler to AI-led placement model

By James Thaler

Aug 15 - (The Insurer) - Flow Specialty is betting on AI to drive scale and profitability in small-commercial insurance, shifting from a wholesale brokerage to a white-label placement service for mid-market and large brokers, CEO Sivan Iram said in an interview.

“We decided there’s going to be a bigger opportunity to license technology out,” Iram said.

“It was a very difficult decision to move away from being a wholesaler and only building for ourselves, to build for others.”

The insurtech now positions itself as a “national placement center”, using clients’ own carrier appointments to process books that are often unprofitable in-house.

Iram said internal agents might place 400 accounts a year, whereas Flow’s AI-enabled process handles 4,000, with a target of 6,000 to 10,000.

The company charges a monthly tech license plus per-policy usage fees rather than splitting commissions. Its 52% quote-to-bind ratio is more than double the 20% to 25% industry average, driven by faster turnaround and AI-generated market analysis.

Flow’s technology, initially built to handle specialty lines like cyber and management liability, now supports property, casualty and personal lines. The system can aggregate quotes from APIs, portals and email into a single client-ready format.

The pivot, made in May, followed a surge in licensing interest and included the departure of Flow’s 12-person producer team, among them brokerage president David Derigiotis, and the handover of wholesale appointments to avoid conflicts.

Founded in 2021 as Capitola and rebranded in 2024, Flow has raised $20.6 million from Munich Re Ventures and Lightspeed Venture Partners. Iram said the firm is not currently fundraising but expects to seek capital in 2026.

“Our goal is to help brokers scale without adding headcount — and make small commercial profitable again,” he said.