MISSION accelerates program incubation and powers underwriting efficiency with Federato’s AI-native platform

MISSION launched in 2021 with a bold premise: empower talented underwriters to start their own businesses without the typical overhead of running an agency. By providing capital, technology, operations, and carrier capacity, while letting entrepreneurial underwriters retain equity, MISSION created a new model for program incubation.

The results exceeded all expectations. Planning to launch two programs in year one, MISSION ended 2021 with five. Today, they support 30 programs across 70+ product lines, with over $500 million in gross written premium and 50-60% annual growth. 

The problem 

MISSION grew quickly, going from zero to $500 million in GWP in four years, and supporting 30 programs across 70+ product lines. And while explosive scalability is fundamental to their strategy of being the premier platform for entrepreneurial underwriters, it creates intense operational challenges.

Each of MISSION’s 30 programs operate independently and have unique requirements, from aviation insurance to construction liability, spanning admitted and non-admitted markets across retail, wholesale, and direct distribution channels. 

Manual submission processing threatened to derail their efficiency. Some of their most successful programs had grown to receive tens of thousands of submissions annually, while relying on manual data extraction from emails and attachments. Data processing bottlenecks delayed underwriting decisions, and without automated prioritization, MISSION’s underwriters spent valuable time on low-potential submissions while better opportunities waited in the queue.

Data consistency across their diverse portfolio presented another critical challenge. MISSION needed to provide comprehensive analytics to capacity providers, and give underwriters real-time intelligence for better decision-making. But aggregating meaningful metrics across dozens of programs using different systems and workflows required enormous manual effort.

MISSION needed a technology partner capable of matching their velocity, while transforming their underwriting workflow from a constraint into an accelerator for growth.

The solution

MISSION sought a technology platform that could deliver on their eight-week implementation target, while supporting diverse program requirements, and setting them up for the AI future. 

"When evaluating platforms, we asked ourselves: do we want something that's AI-enabled or AI-native?" said Michael Waller, VP of Technology Business Operations. "AI-enabled basically just means you’re bolting capabilities onto a legacy system. Federato is AI-native, built from the ground up with AI at its core, touching every aspect of the policy lifecycle from submission intake through to bind and renewal."

Federato's partnership approach proved equally valuable. "During our evaluation, the one thing we consistently heard from other Federato customers was 'partnership,'" says Craig Manning, VP of Products. "When we hit roadblocks, like needing critical functionality before go-live, they promised two weeks and delivered in three days, over a holiday weekend. You just don’t see that from older insurtech providers."

To accelerate their time-to-market for new business lines, MISSION focused on creating a reusable “base build” on Federato and streamlining time-consuming aspects of LOB launches.

"We built out our standard workflows and base templates with Federato," said Waller. "This lets us get people live faster, but also helps us maintain common expectations and workflows across all programs. Every program operates semi-autonomously with MISSION, but this base layer ensures we capture consistent analytics across our entire portfolio."

Forms complexity had historically been a major bottleneck. "Managing forms is critical for speed to market. Some programs need 100 forms, others need 300, each with different dynamic fields and attachment rules," said Sujata Raju, CTO. "If we can streamline forms creation and configuration from months or weeks to days or hours, that dramatically accelerates our ability to launch programs. That is key to achieving our target LOB launch timelines."

"Federato understood our big picture from day one," said Waller. "We're focused on where we want to be six years from now. They're not just a vendor; they're a partner helping us reimagine what's possible in program administration."

The results

MISSION's implementation of Federato delivered measurable improvements across their operations, validating their decision to pursue an AI-first approach.

"Our first program with Federato, we kicked off in May and were live by August, roughly 10 to 12 weeks later, with a brand new platform," said Waller. "We’re on track to hit that eight-week mark for new products going forward. If we consistently hit that goal, while maintaining quality and stability, we will be unstoppable.”

Submission processing transformed from a bottleneck to a competitive advantage. What once required teams of people manually entering data became an automated workflow that gave underwriters their time back.

"Traditionally, a submission might take up to 24 hours for a human to digest, key into the application, and pass to the underwriter," explains Waller. "Now the Federato application is processing that in minutes. It's ready for underwriters as they start their day. That frees our people to focus on far more valuable activity than data entry."

MISSION had experienced growing pains of new technology deployments before, and was sensitive to the reliability of Federato's platform performance. "Post go-live, there's been very little noise, and Federato’s ability to respond quickly to any issues has been impressive," said Raju. "For us, those are key metrics. How quickly can we launch the program, and from a quality perspective, is it running smooth? In that regard, our program leaders have been very happy."

The platform delivered visibility MISSION had long sought but hadn’t yet been able to achieve, creating a comprehensive view of their operations across programs. For the first time, leadership could identify bottlenecks and trends in real-time rather than relying on quarterly reports or anecdotal feedback.

"We can track month over month, program over program, what the turnaround time and trends are," said Waller. "We can see things like, 'It took us four hours to turn around a quote last month, this month it's taken twelve, what's going on?' We didn't have that insight before."

MISSION's confidence in the platform shows in their expansion plans. "We've made the decision to onboard two additional programs by mid next year, and by first quarter, we'll have five programs on Federato with more to come," said Raju. "The partnership we've built together has been instrumental. When we needed critical functionality, they delivered over a holiday weekend. When we needed base product changes, they made them happen. Federato is a key partner as we continue to scale immensely and support our programs' growth."