Whitewater-based RoofMarketplace, Inc., an online marketplace platform used by insurance carriers and roofing contractors to fulfill roofing claims, has completed a $5 million Series A funding round that will be used to accelerate its growth and technology development. The funding round was led by Chicago-based Sandalphon Capital.
RoofMarketplace connects homeowners, carriers, and contractors during the roof claim process. Using aerial imagery, roofers provide actionable bids in minutes without ever visiting the property.
William Bazeley, CEO of RoofMarketplace, created the company with his two co-founders, Timothy Russell and David Kish, in 2013. The trio all have background experience in the insurance industry and together helped identify a need in the market.
“What we have gotten rid of is the gamification that’s caused by the status quo and some of the cost estimators and standard practices that are raising the cost of roofs artificially…making it so carriers are overspending by millions of dollars on their roof claims,” Bazeley said.
Aerial imagery has been used and proven as effective in the insurance industry already, but what RoofMarketplace has done is taken the use of that imagery and combined it with other pieces of data and measurements so roofers can send out bids for jobs without having to physically visit a site. A process that can sometimes take weeks has been distilled to a few minutes.
“So now, the homeowner didn’t have to meet with two to three roofers, spend all that time coordinating (and) wait for the salesperson to come out. You’re able to shop and get those (fair) prices like you would for anything else in a very dependable way,” Bazeley said.
All of the roofers listed on RoofMarketplace have been vetted by the company. The company has a partnership with roofing manufacturer GAF to include listings from their Big League of Roofers.
While the company is based in Wisconsin, it does not yet serve the state. RoofMarketplace is currently servicing Florida, Texas, Minnesota, Louisiana and the Carolinas. The company aims to be in over 25 states by the second quarters of 2023 and currently employs 23 people.
“We are definitely targeting those gulf states because of the hurricane and weather events that are happening there. The Midwest is a very big target for us because of hail and some of the other wind events that happen,” Bazeley said.
Currently, RoofMarketplace operates as a B2B platform connecting insurance carriers and roofers, but homeowners are invited by insurance carriers to use the technology to request bids. Allowing homeowners to use the platform without an invite is an eventual goal.
The company’s latest funding round will support its continued growth and allow for the addition of jobs in the categories of development, sales, account management and customer support. Research and development for additional functions that have been requested by clients will also be funded through this latest funding round.
RoofMarketplace also completed a $1.1 million seed round last year.
“The industry is changing and insurtechs have been abuzz in the industry in general,” Bazeley said. “A lot of our success is being driven by the dependable results that we continue to deliver to carriers and the ROI that we’re offering both contractors and carriers.”
