Total funding: $23.2 million
What it does: Uses artificial intelligence to allow owners of commercial real estate to see under the hood of their property insurance in order to make changes that reduce their premiums.
Why it's hot: Cofounder Hemant Shah is the longtime CEO of Risk Management Solutions, the largest risk-analytics company. The idea behind Archipelago is to allow owners of commercial real estate to see how their insurance risk is calculated. That gives them concrete information they can use to make decisions to lower their risk and, as a result, their premiums.
The data that Archipelago gathers — from building-operations data to the blueprint of a building — is then used by insurers to underwrite plans that are more specific with less effort. The combination of a superstar founding team and innovative model has earned the company a lot of interest very quickly. Archipelago already counts the major real-estate owners and operators JLL, Morgan Stanley, and MetLife as clients.