Jerry- a car insurance comparison site centered around AI and machine learning – has raised $28 million in new financing.

The Palo Alto, Calif.-based startup, which operates as a licensed insurance broker, plans to use the money to scale its signature product and pursue hiring, so it can expand into additional market categories. Headquartered in Palo Alto, Calif., Jerry also has offices in Toronto, and Lockport, NY, though it is hiring remote work employees.

Jerry’s new financing is on top of $29 million raised in 2018 before a soft launch a year later. The company remained in stealth mode until the announcement of its latest funding round.

Jerry was co-founded by the team who built YourMechanic, which is billed as the largest nationwide on-demand car repair and maintenance service serving more than 2,000 U.S. cities. Those founders include Jerry CEO Art Agrawal; Lina Zhang, vice president of operations; and Musawir Shah, chief technology officer. Board members and investors Chi-Hua Chien, co-founder of Goodwater Capital, and Rafi Syed, general partner at Bow Capital, support the leadership team.

“We’re bringing the daily needs of car owners – insurance, loans, maintenance, repairs, warranties, parking, and more – in line with modern e-commerce expectations to create a frictionless cost-saving experience,” Agrawal said in prepared remarks.

Jerry bills itself as a “mobile-first car ownership super app,” which currently serves nearly 1 million customers in the U.S. It claims to provide customized quotes from more than 45 insurance carriers in 45 seconds, without the need for long forms and “unwanted” human interaction. It hunts for better rates, completes the transaction and can even cancel former policies on customers’ behalf, the company said.

The Jerry app is available for free to customers in all 50 states, and the company asserts it can save customers $800 annually on car insurance.

Jerry is part of a market that includes The Zebra, an auto and home insurance InsurTech and comparison site that raised $150 million in April to expand its online insurance comparison operations. There’s also SelectQuote, a Kansas-based company that lets consumers compare insurance policies for life, auto and home insurance.

Source: Jerry