80% of UK small and medium-sized businesses are underinsured, suffering from outdated brokerage systems and expensive, slow processes. With a tech-driven approach, Meshed, a UK-based startup, wants to change the game by automating manual tasks and offering real-time insurance updates that keep coverage aligned with evolving business needs.
Today, the company closed a £950,000 pre-seed funding round led by Haatch, with additional support from Aviva via Founders Factory and the Exponential Science Foundation. In conversation with TFN, Jake Wells, COO and co-founder of Meshed, remarks, “We last raised at a £5.25m post-money valuation.”
Founders’ vision and mission are rooted in deep industry expertise
Meshed was founded by Mark Costello, who previously scaled insurance brokerage Taveo before its exit in 2024, and is joined by Jake Wells and Vincent Liu, an Imperial College London alum with strong experience building insurance software platforms.
The trio is unified by a vision to modernise commercial broking with technology that puts the customer first. As Wells puts it, “We’ve all spent years in broking and insurance. It’s slow, outdated, and often built for the broker or insurer, not the customer…. We’re here to replace that.”
AI-driven platform redefining brokerage efficiency and client experience
Meshed’s platform connects directly to clients’ accounting and business systems to pull live data, speeding up quoting and improving pricing accuracy. The company says it has cut quoting times from about an hour to just nine minutes by automating the repetitive admin that consumes brokers.
Clients benefit from a fully digital experience: transparent quotes, visible commissions, swift claims handling, and continuous coverage updates. Unlike legacy brokers burdened with multiple disconnected systems, Meshed owns its technology stack, allowing it to learn and improve from each interaction continuously.
Wells explains to TFN, “ AI agents take on the repetitive work that eats 60% of a broker’s time, cutting our costs by ~20% and letting our people focus where human judgment matters. Part of our quoting process that other brokers will suffer with used to take us 1 hour, now it takes us 9 minutes. Clients get a fully digital experience, quotes, claims, and even broker commissions, all visible in their portal. Claims are handled faster, with clear comms. And because we own our data and build AI-first, we’re not chained to a pile of legacy systems like incumbents are.”
What’s next for Meshed?
With regulatory approval as an FCA-appointed representative and 51 insurer agreements in place, Meshed is gearing up to scale. The recent funding will go toward growing the team and enhancing AI-powered analytics and user experience.
Wells concludes, “We’ve brought in investors who get what we’re building and why now’s the time. Early signs in product and GTM are strong, customers are telling us this is refreshing and needed. With costs rising for businesses everywhere, we’re making sure they don’t have to choose between good cover and a good price. And they definitely shouldn’t be paying for their broker’s inefficiency.”
Meshed’s ambitions don’t stop at the UK. In the next few years, the startup plans to own distribution in commercial insurance nationwide and develop new insurance products in partnership with insurers, eventually setting its sights on international expansion.
