The funding round was led by Radical Ventures, with participation from a16z Speedrun. New investors include Brendan O’Driscoll and Larry James Erwin.

To date, the company has raised $8.4 million with backers including Radical Ventures, a16z Speedrun and Comma Capital, alongside operators such as Aidan Gomez and executives from Braze.

General Magic builds automated agents for insurance firms. These agents answer routine questions, collect documents and follow up with customers. They operate across the insurance lifecycle, from pre-quote checks to post-quote engagement and claims coordination.

The company says its technology connects directly to broker management systems, quoting platforms and customer relationship systems already in use.

In early deployments with one of the world’s largest general insurers, General Magic reduced quote times from around 30 minutes to less than three. The reduction was achieved through an SMS-based agent that handles clarification and follow-ups automatically.

“Too much of insurance still relies on manual follow-through across calls, inboxes, and scattered systems,” said Jai Mansukhani, co-founder and president of General Magic.

“We focus on keeping customers engaged at every stage of the lifecycle, not just at quote or claim. Our agents handle the routine work that slows teams down, while giving insurance leaders real visibility into what customers are asking, where they are getting stuck, and how they are feeling.

“When that engagement and data flow directly into core systems, teams move faster and customers feel genuinely supported.”

At the centre of the company’s innovation is a product called Cell. It connects to broker systems, rating platforms and CRMs. Teams can deploy it through SMS, iMessage and RCS.

Customers can send questions by text, while the agent pulls data from internal systems, requests missing details and updates records as the process moves forward.

The company is currently working with insurers across motor and life lines, where follow-up after issuing a quote usually determines whether a sale is completed.

General Magic was founded by Anthony Azrak and Jai Mansukhani. Both previously built and sold technology products into established industries, then moved into insurance after dealing with repeated delays and high premiums following a water leak claim.

The founders say the industry works, but customer experience sometimes breaks down during important moments such as quoting and claims.

Retention is also a challenge across the insurance sector. Acquiring new customers costs more than keeping existing ones. With more policies being sold digitally and customers comparing prices at renewal, firms risk losing business after investing time and money to secure it.

Sanjana Basu, partner at Radical Ventures, said: “Most of the world’s financial and insurance data is locked inside rigid, legacy systems that were never designed for the AI era. General Magic isn’t trying to convince enterprises to throw away that infrastructure. Instead, they are giving them a way to finally talk to it. 

“By building a reasoning layer that sits on top of existing systems of record, the General Magic team are unlocking a massive amount of trapped value. 

“This is how the Fortune 500 becomes AI-native. Not by rebuilding from scratch, but by bridging the gap between old data and new intelligence.”

Troy Kirwin, investment partner at a16z Speedrun, added: “We’ve watched Anthony and Jai grow exponentially both during their speedrun cohort and in the months after. They are building a truly compelling product that we believe will revolutionise workflows across insurance carriers and brokerages globally. 

“I have a personal thesis that outsiders will disrupt legacy industries, and General Magic has helped buttress this thesis with the immense progress they’ve made. We are excited to deepen our partnership through supporting their seed round.”

Pete Tessier, BFA, CAIB, president at insurance MGA Taycon Risk, said: “What I have seen with General Magic and their approach to AI was a willingness to adapt to the insurance industry’s needs.

This is significant because of the varied nuances of the insurance industry and how its products are distributed and why internal and external customer journeys are different.

“The challenge will be making it scale across all channels of insurance product distribution. This might be the first true ‘game changer’ for the industry and deliver on customer experience and expectations”

General Magic plans to expand into more insurance lines and workflows with a focus on high-intent moments where communication gaps cost brokers and insurers time and revenue.

A spinout from Mila, Montreal’s AI research institute, Ubenwa is working with Montreal Children’s Hospital and pediatric hospital networks around the world, to build a platform for sound-based diagnostic tools, combining groundbreaking AI research and clinical insights.

For both clinicians and parents, an infant’s cry is difficult to diagnose. Babies cry for several reasons such as when they are hungry, exhausted or have colic. However, a baby’s cry can also be a signal that more urgent care is required.

Delayed diagnosis may lead to severe, long-lasting effects or fatality. Ubenwa has developed accurate algorithms for cry activity tracking, acoustic biomarker detection and anomaly prediction, turning infant cries into clinically relevant insights and potential diagnoses.

The company’s first pilot on detecting neurological injury due to birth asphyxia showed about 40% improvement over APGAR scoring, the most common physical exam at birth.

Charles Onu the Co-founder and CEO of Ubenwa who has pioneered the use of audio signal processing and machine learning to better understand infant cry sounds said, “Ubenwa is building a diagnostic tool that understands when a baby’s cry is actually a cry for medical attention.” “Ultimately, our goal is to be a translator for baby cry sounds, providing a non-invasive way to monitor medical conditions everywhere you find a baby: delivery rooms, neonatal and paediatric intensive care units, nurseries, and in the home.”

Ubenwa’s technology is based on a foundation of scientific research developed in close collaboration with Mila, and six hospitals in three countries, including Montreal Children’s

Hospital, Enugu State University Teaching Hospital in Nigeria, Rivers State Teaching Hospital in Nigeria and Santa Casa de Misericordia in Brazil.

The company has the largest and most diverse clinically annotated database of infant cry sounds, an essential asset for the development of audio-based biomarkers.

“Cry analysis has the potential to provide critical information for identifying babies with evolving brain problems,” said Dr Guilherme Sant’Anna, Neonatologist at Montreal Children’s Hospital and Professor at McGill University. “A non-invasive diagnostic tool of this nature would be a powerful clinical resource for pediatric medicine. We are thrilled to be collaborating with Ubenwa and realise this through well-controlled clinical studies.”

Ubenwa raised $2.5M USD in a pre-seed round that attracted top AI venture funds and

researchers. Radical Ventures led the round, which included participation from returning investor AIX Ventures, a fund co-founded by AI researchers and entrepreneurs Pieter Abbeel and Richard Socher. Turing award winner Yoshua Bengio also invested in Ubenwa alongside Google Brain’s Hugo Larochelle and Marc Bellemare.

“Supported by a strong clinical foundation, Ubenwa has developed a proprietary innovation for an underserved and important market,” said Sanjana Basu, an Investor with Radical Ventures who joins the Ubenwa board. “Deciphering a baby’s cry using machine learning can open up a range of possibilities in the consumer and clinical paediatrics market where demand for better digital products is only growing.”