Ascend

We boosted Bulldog Insurance's revenue by 25% by reducing operational expenses and increasing premium financing revenue through automating their agency bill workflows.

"Time is the most valuable asset for insurance agencies. Ascend allows us to significantly reduce time spent on redundant work, so we can spend more time prioritizing our clients, and growing our agency." - Ammar Haque, CFO, Bulldog Insurance

Read more:
https://www.useascend.com/blog-posts/case-study-bulldog-insurance

We're excited to partner with the National Association of Professional Insurance Agents (PIA) and their affiliates to modernize how members collect while creating a modern checkout experience for their .

In addition to creating a seamless experience for the insureds to pay for their policies, we will be focused on helping PIA members bring operational efficiencies to their agency bill book of business.

Learn more:
https://www.coverager.com/ascend-integrates-payments-and-premium-financing-solution-with-ams360/

What a year it's been!

We've selected a few features that stand out as our top accomplishments from this year. From principals to producers to account managers to accountants - Ascend is built to help everyone manage and simplify their agency bill process.

Thank you to all our customers for your patience and invaluable feedback as we couldn't have done this without you.

Read more:

Ascend's 2022 Yearly Tech Recap - Ascend Over the past year, we've grown to help over 500+ organizations simplify their payments process. We worked closely with our customers to build features that solve real problems for them - here's a highlight of some that our customers love the most!

From the rise of CX-based technologies to incumbent collaborations, Insurance Business America asked the brightest minds in insurtech what trends they see reshaping the industry as we know it. Have a look here:

Revealed - the top five insurtech trends reshaping America's insurance landscape Insurers that are ready to embrace change to benefit the most, expert says

"Not only is Ascend doing things for Three Arbor and making our lives easier, it’s making our clients lives easier. It’s a win-win." – David Foster, President at Three Arbor Insurance.

Learn more about how Three Arbor uses Ascend to eliminate back office tasks and provide a payments experience customers love:

Why Ascend? Q&A with David Foster, President at Three Arbor Insurance Learn how David Foster, President at Three Arbor Insurance, uses Ascend to help his agency reduce time spent on accounting tasks as well as provide an easy p...

We're excited to announce our integration with HawkSoft! With this integration, agents will be able to seamlessly leverage the best of both partners to even further optimize agent workflows.

Our two-way API integration easily offers both premium financing or pay in full payment options for customers with a single click of a button inside Hawksoft's system.

Read more: https://coverager.com/ascend-partners-with-hawksoft-to-optimize-agent-workflows-finances/

Last week, we were officially endorsed by The AC as their preferred payments and financing platform for its vast member network.

"Ascend is tackling one of, if not the, biggest pain points that agents are dealing with — the antiquated and cumbersome payments system. We're proud to endorse them and engrain them into our network of agents." – Kenny Urbania, CEO of the AC.

Check out the details in PYMNTS.com: What's Next in Payments:

https://www.pymnts.com/insurance/2022/insurance-payments-platform-ascend-endorsed-by-agency-collective/

Insurance Payments Platform Ascend Endorsed By Agency Collective The insurance payments platform Ascend was endorsed as a payments and financing platform for the member network serviced by the Agency Collective.

Today, we have officially been endorsed by the AC as their preferred payments and financing platform for its vast member network.

"We are thrilled to partner with The AC and their network of agency members as we believe in serving the independent agency channel and their clients. This partnership will help ease the transition so many agents are making into the independent model by providing them with our modern payments platform that simplifies and streamlines the insurance payments process for all parties involved – including agents and agencies of all sizes.”

https://coverager.com/ascend-x-the-agency-collective-your-new-preferred-payments-financing-platform/

Agency bill doesn't have to be complicated. Ascend is an all-in-one solution that simplifies all your tedious agency bill processes. Collect online payments, offer premium financing, send personalized reminders, automate carrier payables, and much more.

https://bit.ly/3QuVF5x

Introducing: Ascend Ascend is an all-in-one solution that simplifies your agency bill process. Collect online payments, offer premium financing, and track your carrier payables all…

Did you hear? Last week, we announced our partnership with NowCerts - Insurance Agency Management System to bring the best of payments and premium financing into one system for agents. Read more about it in last week's Insurance Business America roundup.

https://bit.ly/3BPRCgh

Insurtech weekly news roundup: July 29 Global expansion, a partnership, new hires and more

We're proud to be sponsoring this year's Unfiltered Experience conference in Las Vegas! Join us for a weekend of exciting workshops, insightful speakers, and a community of like-minded, fierce, ambitious women in finance. Get your tickets today!

https://bit.ly/3d64kgx

Unfiltered Experience Unfiltered Experience is a 3-day In-Person event in Las Vegas NV for female entrepreneurs in the insurance industry.

Today, we're happy to share that we're teaming up with NowCerts to bring the best of payments and premium financing into one system for agents.

“This integration allows us to automate even more of our workflow processes which not only saves time but also reduces any manual errors. We’re able to lean heavier into our tech stack to help us do more with less as our agency grows.” – Tim DiPietro, CEO, StartSure

https://lnkd.in/eA6Jfz9C

Ascend x NowCerts Integration - Ascend We're excited to announce our very first AMS integration - with NowCerts. With this integration, agents will be able to automatically create Ascend checkout links inside the NowCerts dashboard with the click of a button.

We’re excited to announce that we’ve partnered with Independent Insurance Agents of North Carolina to provide the best streamlined payments and financing solutions to their network of independent agents.

“We believe in empowering the IA channel with a modern payments and checkout process for their clients and by doing so, enabling agencies to do what they do best, be a trusted advisor. Through this partnership, we are able to empower agents across the state of North Carolina.” - Chris Peabody, Strategic Partnerships, Ascend.

https://insurance-edge.net/2022/07/15/ascend-partners-with-us-agents-association/

"It's about empowering agents to do what they do really well, which is be risk advisors... that's why we philosophically believe in empowering the agent." Our Co-Founder & Co-CEO Andrew Wynn sat down with Insurance Radio to discuss all things Ascend – from how we're helping agents manage funds to the importance of improving customer experience. Listen here:

https://insuranceradio.com/andrew-wynn-co-founder-of-ascend/

Andrew Wynn: Co-Founder of Ascend – InsuranceRadio.com In this episode we are excited to share a conversation with Silicon Valley virtuoso and Ascend co-founder, Andrew Wynn. Take a few minutes to learn about this innovation which facilitates funds flow through the various stakeholders in insurance, all while prioritizing your customer’s experience.

We launched over 30 new features last quarter but our biggest ones helped agents stay flexible to meet their customers’ ever changing needs. Endorsements, refunds, cancelations, and downpayment adjustments were just some our most requested features that we shipped.

What's on the horizon?
We're working on AMS integrations next! Stay tuned.

https://bit.ly/3P5GRJZ

2022 Q2 Tech Recap - Ascend Q2 was focused on payments flexibility - check out all the features we added to support agents' ever changing needs: endorsements, downpayment adjustments, cancelations, and more.

Have you listened to the latest episode of The Unstoppable Podcast? Andrew Wynn talks all about his journey co-founding Ascend, the significance of customer-centric insurance technology, and how modernization = freedom. Check it out: https://podcast.mikestromsoe.com/2022/07/02/episode-165-people-business-people-andrew-wynn/

"It’s valuable to meet other peers in the same industry to understand how we can work together towards the same common goal. Sharing experiences and knowledge with others from the industry can give us a head start in a male dominated and biased industry. "

Check out Johanna Le's latest piece on what it means to be a woman in the fintech space, and how you can support the women both at your own companies and in the broader fintech ecosystem.

https://news.fintechnexus.com/three-ways-to-help-women-thrive-in-fintech/

Three ways to help women thrive in fintech Today, women only hold less than 20% of all tech leadership jobs globally. This phenomenon can feel disheartening and isolating.

Excited to be featured as the only insurance player in the BNPL landscape in this Fast Company article by Ainsley Harris. Agents are hungry for financing solutions that are fast and flexible and Ascend is built to make our agents' lives easier.

https://bit.ly/3QMq2FK

Buy now, pay later services are retailers’ next great hope ‘BNPL’ started as a credit card killer, but what if it’s really an end run around the Facebook ad-industrial complex?

Interested in Ascend but not ready to sign up? Check out our weekly webinar to learn more about how we help simplify the payments and financing process for agents.

No commitment - feel free to drop in when convenient and leave if something comes up. No worries if you miss this one, we'll be hosting it every Thursday at 12pm PST.

https://bit.ly/3Og0Bun

Ascend - Platform Demonstration - Huston Byers In this quick product demo, we’ll walk through Ascend’s key values: A modern online checkout with flexible payment options One-click premium financing with market-leading base rates Instant commissions and automated payables to carriers & wholesalers

"We’re excited that Ascend's payments solution shares our vision to deliver the best possible customer experience and simplify tedious, expensive operational processes."
– Spike Lipkin, Newfront Insurance

Check out what else Ascend customers have to say:
https://bit.ly/3NlCsS5

Ascend - Customers Ascend replaces the outdated concept of agency bill and direct bill. Whether a broker, MGA, or carrier - Ascend has a solution for you that will help you sell more and reduce operational burden.

How big will the E&S market be in a decade? We pulled some data and the trends suggest that E&S will grow to a double digit share of the overall P/C market. What do you think? Is this a signal that agencies should prepare for handling payments for policies in non-admitted markets?

https://bit.ly/3MYI6ZV

In December, we asked founders, investors, and industry experts what they believed was going to be the biggest fintech trend of 2022. Now that we're halfway through the year, let's take a look at how some of these predictions have panned out:

https://bit.ly/3NQBqyn

Top 38 Insurtech Predictions to Expect in 2022 - Ascend With 2021 quickly coming to an end, it’s the time of year when people begin to reflect on the past and make way for the future. So many people are pondering what’s on the horizon for the insurance industry. What’s the next big thing in 2022? What’s going to be the defining moment or defining...

Want to help modernize the financing and payments infrastructure for the $1T (and growing) insurance market? We're for to shape the future of Ascend and the evolution of our products.

Check out the job listing below:
https://bit.ly/391OjX5

Product Designer What we do Ascend is a fintech company building the financing and payments infrastructure for the $1T insurance market (did you know insurance premiums make up 7.2% of global GDP?) https://www.swissre.com/dam/jcr:05ba8605-48d3-40b6-bb79-b891cbd11c36/sigma4_2020_en.pdf. More than 40% of payments are....

Our team just keeps on growing! Right now, we're looking for our very first Sales Development Representative to join our Columbus team. You or anyone you know interested? Check out the full details & how to apply here: https://bit.ly/3l3aoqS

Sales Development Representative What we do Ascend is a fintech company building the financing and payments infrastructure for the $1T insurance market (did you know insurance premiums make up 7.2% of global GDP?). More than 40% of payments are still made with paper checks resulting in poor customer experience and expensive and ope...

Mark your calendars – we're teaming up with NYC Fintech Women for this year's Fintech Spring Social! Join us on May 24th for a night of great conversation, and even greater company.

Full details & RSVP here: https://bit.ly/388H2V5

Spring Social: NYC FinTech Women x Ascend | NYC Fintech Women NYC Fintech Women is pleased to team up with emerging start up Ascend for a wonderful night out.

Calling all Product Engineers: we're looking for someone in the Bay Area to join our ever-growing team! Interested in helping us build the modern infrastructure for insurance payments? Then this might just be the perfect role for you. Apply here:
https://bit.ly/3kG8DPX

Product Engineer (SF) What we do Ascend is a fintech company building the financing and payments infrastructure for the $1T insurance market (did you know insurance premiums make up 7.2% of global GDP?) https://www.swissre.com/dam/jcr:05ba8605-48d3-40b6-bb79-b891cbd11c36/sigma4_2020_en.pdf. More than 40% of payments are....

Amos Levy from Flexport joined us to chat about the future for successful insurance companies and tips he's picked up along the way for those just getting started. Give it a read!

https://www.useascend.com/blog-posts/ask-an-agent-amos-levy

Anyone attending this week? Be sure to check out our Co-Founder & Co-CEO Andrew Wynn's panel! Buy your tickets here: https://insurtechhartfordsymposium.com/

Insurtech Hartford | April 26th & 27th, 2022 | Hartford, CT Insurtech Hartford Symposium is an industry event designed to push the boundaries of innovation in insurance by brining together the latest technology and top talent.

We make it easier for people to protect the things they care about by simplifying & modernizing the insurance industry’s financial infrastructure. Sound like something you want to be apart of? Be sure to check out our job board – we're actively across a variety of roles in 3 different cities! https://bit.ly/3Lcmzx2

Ascend Jobs Ascend Jobs

Excited to share our visit to The Insurance Guy's podcast. Give it a listen if you haven't already!

https://theinsuranceguyspodcast.com/getting-your-agency-out-of-1st-gear-with-andrew-wynn

The Insurance Guys Podcast: Getting Your Agency Out Of 1st Gear with Andrew Wynn In this very special episode, Bradley and Scott sit down with a guy who is literally changing the way the insurance industry operates by combining the benefits of agency bill with the convenience of direct bill. Check it out. Check Out The Modern Insurance Payments Platform Book an Ascend demo at&nb...