Shepherd Raises $42M to Automate Insurance for AI Infrastructure Boom

Quick Facts

• Shepherd raised $42 million Series B led by Intact Private Capital, bringing total funding to $67 million
• Company grew revenue 7x in 24 months, insuring over $400 billion in project value across 1,500+ policies
• Platform reduces commercial underwriting time from weeks to hours using AI agents integrated with construction software

Insurance technology startup Shepherd closed a $42 million Series B round to expand its AI-powered underwriting platform for complex infrastructure projects driving the artificial intelligence boom.

Intact Private Capital led the round with participation from Spark Capital, Costanoa Ventures and additional investors. The funding brings Shepherd’s total capital raised to $67 million.

The company targets the massive construction projects behind AI infrastructure. Hyperscalers spent around $210 billion on data center capital expenditures in 2024, with Amazon planning $100 billion for 2025, Alphabet approximately $75 billion, and Meta around $65 billion. Morgan Stanley estimates nearly $3 trillion will be spent globally on data centers by 2029.

Shepherd has grown revenue more than seven times over the past 24 months. The company now insures over $400 billion in project value across more than 1,500 policies for 600-plus customers, including leading AI labs, chip manufacturers, and hyperscalers.

“The AI race moved from the cloud to the construction site,” said CEO Justin Levine. “Every GPU cluster needs a building. Every building needs to be constructed. Every data center requires dedicated power.”

The startup’s AI platform integrates directly with construction software platforms including Procore, Autodesk, OpenSpace, DroneDeploy and Samsara. This integration allows AI agents to analyze construction plans and project details automatically, reducing underwriting feedback from weeks to hours.

“Today, an underwriter manually processes about 20 accounts a month,” said CTO Mo Mahallawy. “In our model, an underwriter will oversee 200. AI handles intake, data enrichment, risk analysis, and pricing.”

The platform offers behavior-based pricing that rewards contractors using advanced construction technologies. Companies using partner platforms receive differentiated pricing at enrollment, with further improvements at renewal based on usage data demonstrating lower risk profiles.

Mahallawy said Shepherd is approaching “the first fully agentic submission in commercial insurance. Email in, price out. No human intervention until the last mile.”

The market opportunity is substantial. Industry estimates suggest up to $10 billion of new premium will enter the market in 2026 from AI infrastructure projects. Between 2,000 and 3,000 data centers are expected to be constructed worldwide over the next five years.

“What Shepherd’s building is generational,” said Justin Smith-Lorenzetti, Managing Director at Intact Private Capital. “Their AI-native approach to processing and segmenting commercial risk is unlike anything else we’ve seen in the industry.”

Read more: Insurance tech startup Shepherd raises $42M to underwrite the physical layer of AI