Modern Life Raises $20 Million Series A to Scale Its AI-Powered Life Insurance Platform
Modern Life, a New York-based AI-powered life insurance brokerage that helps financial advisors streamline complex insurance workflows and deliver better client outcomes, has raised $20 million in a Series A funding round, bringing the company’s total capital raised to $35 million since its inception. The new financing marks a major step in Modern Life’s growth, enabling it to accelerate product development, expand strategic partnerships nationwide, and scale its proprietary AI-driven platform across the insurance ecosystem.
Founded by Michael Konialian, Modern Life combines cutting-edge artificial intelligence with deep domain expertise to simplify the traditionally opaque and time-consuming process of life insurance underwriting, quoting, and policy management. The company’s platform integrates tools that would otherwise require numerous fragmented legacy systems, offering advisors instant quoting capabilities, data-driven underwriting insights, a unified agency management dashboard, and an “Express Decision” function that delivers underwriting decisions in minutes rather than weeks.
The Series A funding round was led by Thrive Capital, a prominent venture capital firm known for investing in technology-enabled businesses across software, consumer, and financial services sectors. Thrive Capital also led Modern Life’s earlier $15 million seed round, reinforcing its long-term confidence in the startup’s vision and execution.
In addition to Thrive Capital’s lead investment, the Series A saw participation from strategic investors including New York Life Ventures, the venture capital arm of one of the largest life insurance companies in the United States, Northwestern Mutual Future Ventures, the innovation and investment division of Northwestern Mutual focused on insurtech and adjacent technologies, and Allegis, a financial services investor that supports firms transforming distribution and customer engagement.
The infusion of capital from this investor group comes at a time when digital transformation in financial services is rapidly accelerating. Modern Life aims to capitalize on this momentum by equipping advisors with AI-driven tools that reduce administrative overhead, improve speed and accuracy in risk assessment, and present clearer options to clients. The company’s founders argue that this technology can fundamentally change how life insurance is sold and serviced, unlocking greater efficiency and access in a $175 billion U.S. market where traditional processes have remained largely manual and complex.
Modern Life’s ecosystem approach is designed to give advisors access to more than 30 major carriers and all key product types, including permanent life, term policies, annuities, and long-term care. By centralizing case management, underwriting analytics, and quoting into a single platform, the startup claims it can shorten sales cycles significantly and deliver cost savings for both advisors and clients. The company also places a strong emphasis on enterprise-grade security and compliance, ensuring sensitive client data is protected throughout the insurance process.
According to leadership at New York Life Ventures and Northwestern Mutual Future Ventures, their participation in the round reflects a belief that Modern Life’s technology aligns with broader industry trends toward automation, personalization, and improved client experiences. These strategic partners see the startup’s AI capabilities as a means to elevate the role of advisors, helping them to compete more effectively in a digital world while preserving the high-touch service that distinguishes life insurance advisory work.
The fresh funding will be deployed across several key areas, including product innovation, platform integration, and expanding the company’s footprint with advisors and carriers nationwide. Modern Life plans to accelerate enhancements to its underwriting models and AI workflows, deepen partnerships with carrier networks, and strengthen features that support complex policy design and planning scenarios.
Modern Life’s progression from seed stage to Series A in just a few years highlights the growing investor interest in companies that leverage artificial intelligence to modernize legacy financial services processes. By addressing the pain points that have historically slowed life insurance adoption—such as lengthy underwriting timelines and fragmented technology—Modern Life seeks to position itself as a leader in the next generation of insurtech innovation.
As the life insurance industry evolves and advisors increasingly demand digital tools that enhance efficiency and client engagement, Modern Life’s latest funding round underscores its potential to shape the future of insurance distribution and advisory services.
