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As the U.S. trucking industrygears upfor the negative impacts of U.S. President Donald Trump ’s new tariffs on goodness spell from Mexico and Canada , a startup building a new form of trucking insurance policy has raise some money to grow and facilitate truckers weather the changes .
Nirvana , an AI - based insurance platform that uses genuine - clock time drive telematics and 20 billion mile of motortruck drive data to build and manage indemnity policies for truckers , has raised $ 80 million in a Series C rhythm of funding . The refreshful immediate payment will be used to build up more services for fleets and case-by-case drivers .
The investing value Nirvana at $ 830 million post - money , more than double its old rating of$350 millionin October 2023 .
Rushil Goel , Nirvana ’s CEO and co - father , identify the circle as “ pre - emptive ” — it was raised keep up inbound interest rather than the inauguration needing the cash .
The investment come from three previous backers . General Catalyst is leading the round , and Lightspeed Venture Partners and Valor Equity Partners are participate .
The investors are doubling down accompany decent growth at the San Francisco - based inauguration . Nirvana aver it has premiums under direction worth more than $ 100 million , double from last year .
This growth is coming at the link of a few trend .
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The trucking industry is potentially an tremendous market place for Nirvana and others like it . Overall , the U.S. trucking industry generated revenue of more than $ 900 billion in 2024 , and describe for 77 % of the freight market in the commonwealth , according to theAmerican Trucking Association . It engage around 8.5 million people , 3.5 million of whom are drivers , and has some 14.3 million exclusive - axle and combining trucks register , which makes up about 5 % of all motor vehicles in the land .
The industriousness grew 1.6 % in 2025 , and its revenue is projected to increase to $ 1.46 trillion by 2035 .
That was , however , before Trump last calendar month outlined his broader economic policies , specifically his push to plant import taxes on goods from Canada and Mexico to arouse federal revenue and drive domesticated output .
“ visit boundary line taxes on our two largest and most important trading partners will unwrap [ … ] progress and raise cost for consumer , ” the American Trucking Association said earlier this month . “ The 100,000 full - clock time hardworking truckers drag 85 % of the surface deal in goods with Mexico and 67 % of the goods trade in with Canada will bear a verbatim and disproportional impact . ”
Not only will duty reduce cross - border freight , the tie added , they will also increase operational costs . The Mary Leontyne Price of a raw truck could rise by up to $ 35,000 , it estimated , “ amounting to a $ 2 billion annual tax and place new equipment out of reach for small letter carrier . ”
All of this intend trucking business now call for to be more aware of price than ever before . That is where Nirvana is desire to play a part . It ’s also where Nirvananeedsto recreate a part lest it find itself facing the same trouble as its customers .
“ The tariffs and related provision chain are perturbation that are certainly come up , ” Goel said in an interview . “ And of course , in an industry like trucking , which drives 70 % of the freight in the U.S. , there ’s certainly some shock of that to be expected . It ’s our novel world . ”
The society ’s platform covers insurance both for fleet ( group of more than 10 “ power units ” ) and non - fleet ( 1 - 9 units ) . Like other novel thespian in insurance , it charge fees base on usage , on a “ pay as you push ” cornerstone that also incorporates safe data using telematics from the vehicles plus information log by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration , the trucking regulator .
That condom data is also part of the company’ssafety analytics product . In addition to this and the underwriting tech that Nirvana claims grow quotes 15 times faster than a traditional insurance underwriter , it has also built AI tools that supposedly automatize and speed up claim processing .
Similar to other bequest markets like industrial technology , hauling has been a mature sphere for tech startup over the last several year .
Tapping into founding in areas like cloud computing , AI , fintech and attached vehicles , startups are spinning up Modern SaaS - base products to help drivers build their businesses and enable hauling caller to consort their fleets more seamlessly . Other company in the place includeLula , SmartHop , Fairmatic , andCloudTrucks .
inauguration are take challenging swings at the trucks themselves , exploit on electric and autonomous vehicle for the next generation of transportation .
Similarly , insurance is in the heart of an development . Something interchangeable to the conception of “ neobanks ” that make a more dynamic drug user experience on top of bequest base has played out among insurance startups . They are also tapping into design around big data and AI to rethink how service are price and purvey .
General Catalyst declined to be interview for this story , but it ’s notable that its expectant bigwig , CEO Hemant Taneja , is leading this round for the firm .
“ indemnity is traditionally a technologically bereft market , right for change . Nirvana is proving a disruptive model , finding plenteous information at scale and build AI around the complex steps of provide commercial policy from quote through claims , ” Taneja enjoin in a statement . “ We ’ve been excited to be a partner in their incredible results , and this investment will speed up Nirvana even further . ”
