Quadrupling-Down in Nirvana: AI-Native Insurance for the Modern Economy

Nearly 1% of every U.S. retail dollar flows through commercial insurance. Yet despite its scale and importance, the system still runs as it did decades ago: manual underwriting, risk priced on historical averages, slow claims, and safe drivers subsidizing risky ones. Premiums keep rising, and entire sectors are feeling the strain.

Few feel it more than trucking. Insurance accounts for up to 10% of fleet operating costs, and between 2010 and 2018, premiums surged by more than 40%. In the past two years alone, more trucking companies folded than in the entire previous decade, with insurance a key factor.

Fixing this isn’t about digitizing paper forms or slapping a UI on top of outdated systems. It requires a new foundation, one built around the right data.

That’s the opportunity Nirvana is building toward.

Why Nirvana

When we met Rushil Goel in 2020, at the time, it was just him and a vision, but one that was grounded in experience, having built and scaled core product lines at Samsara, a leading fleet telematics company. He brought deep conviction that commercial insurance could be rebuilt with software at its core.

We led the seed and have partnered with him, his co-founder Alex Carges, and the team ever since, including leading their Series A and Series B as they’ve scaled.

What’s kept us doubling down is the execution. Nirvana has built proprietary underwriting models trained on more than 30 billion miles of driving data, enabling real-time, risk-adjusted pricing that we believe legacy carriers can’t match.

Their delivery and impact are clear:

• Up to 20% upfront safety discounts for customers
• Loss ratios significantly lower than many of the industry
• Rapid, precision underwriting
• Industry-leading claims satisfaction

It’s rare to find a founder like Rushil who combines deep domain expertise, technical sophistication, and the ability to execute at this AI-driven pace.

A new blueprint for insurance

We couldn’t be more excited to continue strongly supporting Nirvana in this Series D.

The company embodies our belief that the most transformative opportunities in AI lie in rebuilding data-rich, process-constrained industries from the ground up.

Insurance is a trillion-dollar industry that’s been long overdue for change. Nirvana is proving that with the right data, the right models, and the right team, you can make it dramatically better and safter–for customers, carriers, and the economy at large.

The content here does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any securities or investment advisory services.

The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of Lightspeed. Other market participants could take different views. Unless otherwise indicated, the inclusion of any third-party firm and/or company names, brands and/or logos are for representational purposes and does not imply any affiliation with these firms or companies and also does not imply their endorsement of the views expressed by the authors.

Certain information contained herein is based on information from various sources prepared by third parties. While such sources are believed by Lightspeed to be reliable, neither Lightspeed nor its affiliates assume any responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of such information, and such information has not been independently verified by Lightspeed. For more details please see https://www.lsvp.com/legal.