Reviewed by Dr. Dmytro Nasyrov, Founder and CTO
Insurance Software Development
InsurTech platforms, claims processing automation, underwriting systems and policy management solutions.
- 15+ FinTech projects
- 12+ years in business
- 90+ Clutch reviews
Aligned with these frameworks. Audit reports and certifications available on request.
Reviewed by Dmytro Nasyrov
Founder and CTO
23+ years in custom software development. Led 70+ projects across FinTech, healthcare, Web3 and enterprise. aligned with ISO 27001 team.
What is insurance software development?
Authoritative citations 12 sources
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DORA State of DevOps Report
The Google DORA State of DevOps annual report defines the four key software delivery metrics (deployment frequency, lead time for changes, mean time to restore, change failure rate) that we instrument on every production engagement to benchmark delivery performance.
dora.dev
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Stack Overflow Developer Survey
The Stack Overflow Developer Survey documents language, framework, database and tooling adoption across tens of thousands of engineers annually, and we use the trend lines to validate stack choices against hiring pool depth for each client.
survey.stackoverflow.co
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ThoughtWorks Technology Radar
The ThoughtWorks Technology Radar tracks tools, platforms, techniques and languages across adopt, trial, assess and hold rings twice yearly, and is a cross-check we use to validate architectural recommendations against industry consensus.
thoughtworks.com
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Google SRE Book
The Google SRE book codifies service-level objectives, error budgets, incident response and postmortem culture that our production readiness gates adopt directly when handing over a platform to a client operations team.
sre.google
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Martin Fowler bliki
Martin Fowler's bliki is the most cited reference for enterprise architecture patterns including microservices, strangler fig, CQRS, event sourcing and refactoring, which shapes how we describe and implement architecture decisions in ADRs on every client engagement.
martinfowler.com
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Gartner Custom Application Services Magic Quadrant
Gartner publishes multiple Magic Quadrant reports covering custom application services, digital engineering and outsourced development that identify market leaders, completeness of vision and niche specialists across the global software services industry.
gartner.com
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ISO 27001 Information Security Standard
ISO 27001:2022 defines the internationally recognized information security management system requirements that Pharos Production operates under, shaping the control framework we inherit and extend for client software engagements.
iso.org
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OWASP Top 10
The OWASP Top 10 ranks the highest-impact web application security risks and is the single most cited threat reference for application security programs, which every Pharos build is reviewed against before production release.
owasp.org
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NIST Secure Software Development Framework
NIST SSDF SP 800-218 defines secure development practices including threat modelling, SBOM generation, vulnerability disclosure and supply chain controls, which we treat as the baseline Software Development Lifecycle checklist on every client engagement.
csrc.nist.gov
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CNCF Cloud Native Landscape
The CNCF Cloud Native Landscape maps the full cloud-native ecosystem across orchestration, runtime, observability, security and database categories, useful reference material we consult when validating platform choices for client Kubernetes and service mesh engagements.
landscape.cncf.io
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Accelerate by Forsgren, Humble, Kim
Accelerate distills the multi-year DORA research program into the book-length case for DevOps practices correlated with high-performance software delivery, and is the single most cited academic reference for the delivery metrics we ship inside every client engagement.
itrevolution.com
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IEEE SWEBOK
The IEEE Software Engineering Body of Knowledge codifies the professional knowledge areas covering requirements, design, construction, testing, maintenance, configuration management and engineering economics that underpin every professional software services engagement.
computer.org
- Full core insurance replacement without a carrier or MGA partner
- Insurance products without regulatory review from qualified counsel
- Underwriting automation without an actuarial partner on the client side
- "Build our own carrier" projects without licensing strategy
Insurance software at Pharos Production at a glance
- Insurance systems: 8+ production insurance systems since 2019 (policy admin modernization, claims automation, embedded insurance APIs, distribution portals)
- Compliance: PCI DSS for payment flows, SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA for health insurance, state-level insurance compliance
- Stack: Elixir/Phoenix, Java/Spring, Node.js, PostgreSQL with event sourcing, Kafka, AWS with VPC isolation, custom underwriting engines
- Integrations: Guidewire, Duck Creek, Majesco, Sapiens (legacy cores), Cover Genius, Qover, Stripe, Plaid, Sumsub, claims providers
- Pricing: Insurance MVP from $80,000-$200,000; full platform $200,000-$600,000+; retainers from $12,000/month
- Timeline: Discovery + regulatory review 4-6 weeks; MVP 4-7 months; full platform 9-18 months with carrier integration
- Carrier partnerships: We integrate with client carrier or MGA partners; Pharos does not hold insurance licenses
- Honest scope: We recommend Cover Genius/Qover for embedded and decline full core replacements without carrier partners
Custom insurance software vs InsurTech platform (Cover Genius, Qover): which is better?
Custom insurance software gives you regulatory ownership, proprietary underwriting models and direct carrier economics, while InsurTech platforms (Cover Genius, Qover, Bolttech, Stripe Insurance, Tint) ship in weeks with inherited licensing. According to a 2024 McKinsey Insurance 2030 report, 67% of embedded insurance launches since 2021 started on InsurTech platforms - and the ~25% that moved to custom did so when volume, margin or differentiation made the switch worthwhile.
| Factor | Custom insurance software | InsurTech platform |
|---|---|---|
| Time to launch | 4-7 months for an MVP with carrier integration | 2-8 weeks for a basic embedded insurance launch |
| Regulatory model | You (or your partner) hold the carrier/MGA license | Platform holds the licensing; you operate as a distribution partner |
| Product flexibility | Any product the carrier supports | Only products the platform has built |
| Unit economics | Direct carrier relationship; margin captured by you | Platform markup of 5-15% of GWP + SaaS fees |
| Compliance effort | Heavy: client compliance team owns the program | Shared: platform handles platform compliance |
| Differentiation | Full control over underwriting, pricing, claims workflows | Limited to distribution UX and product selection |
| Cost (year 1) | $200,000-$600,000+ build + ~$15,000/month retainer | $5,000-$40,000/month in platform fees + per-policy costs |
| Best fit | Mid-market carriers, full-stack InsurTech, scale-stage distribution | Embedded insurance MVPs, direct-to-consumer launches, travel/e-commerce |
Insurance engineering with regulators in mind
Insurance software projects follow Pharos Verified Delivery with insurance-specific gates: discovery includes regulatory mapping by state/country plus actuarial coordination; build includes policy and claim state machines with full audit trails; production readiness covers regulator-ready reporting plus examiner walkthroughs; support includes quarterly regulatory change reviews and actuarial collaboration workflows.
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Phase 01 / 04 Paid Discovery
2-4 weeks- Technical validation
- Architecture proposal
- Scope refined estimate
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Phase 02 / 04 Iterative Build
2-week sprints- Working demos every sprint
- CTO review at milestones
- ADRs documented
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Phase 03 / 04 Production Readiness
- Monitoring and alerting
- Security audit Pen test
- Runbooks and rollback
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Phase 04 / 04 Support
Ongoing- Security patches
- Performance tuning
- 4h SLA response
Pharos Verified Delivery applied to 70+ production applications since 2013
Insurance systems running in production
Three insurance engagements across policy admin, claims and distribution. Client partners hold the carrier licensing.
Travel marketplace wanted to offer trip insurance but partnering with 12 insurers meant 12 different API integrations, contracts and compliance requirements. Launch delayed 9 months.
Pharos-built insurance distribution API abstracted 12 insurers behind one integration. Launch time cut to 6 weeks per new insurer partner. Attach rate on insurance at checkout 23%, generating $4.2M ARR in the first year.
We built the API as a normalized contract over insurer-specific integrations. The marketplace only sees one API; we maintain the insurer-specific adapters. New insurer onboarding is now a data mapping exercise, not a re-integration.
Claims processors manually extracted 40+ fields from scanned documents. Average processing time 22 minutes per claim with 8% data entry error rate. Customer satisfaction on claims at 38%.
OCR + CV pipeline with automated field extraction, risk scoring and payout routing. Claims processing time down to 35 seconds for low-risk cases, 2-3 minutes for human-review cases. Customer satisfaction up to 74%.
Low-risk claims with clean documentation auto-approve within 35 seconds of submission. Medium-risk go to a 2-3 minute human review with pre-populated fields. High-risk go to adjuster review. Processors redeployed to fraud investigation where human judgment adds value.
Policy administration on a 28-year-old green-screen system. New product launches took 6-9 months. 40% of developer time spent on legacy system integration work.
Modern policy administration API layer + product configuration engine sitting on top of the legacy system. New product launch time down to 4-6 weeks. Developer productivity recovered as legacy system calls were abstracted behind a clean API.
We did not replace the core - we abstracted it. The configuration engine lets product managers launch new products through a config UI; the API layer translates to legacy system calls. The core can be replaced later without touching the product layer.
Client names anonymized under NDA. Full case studies at /cases/.
When custom insurance software is not the answer
We decline roughly 30% of RFPs we receive. Forcing a bad fit costs both sides 3-6 months and damages outcomes. Here is how we think about scope:
- Full core insurance replacement without carrier or MGA partner
- Insurance products without regulatory review from qualified counsel
- Underwriting automation without an actuarial partner on the client side
- Products where existing InsurTech infrastructure (Stripe Insurance, Cover Genius, Qover) would ship in weeks
- "Build our own carrier" projects without licensing strategy
For early-stage embedded insurance and direct-to-consumer products, platforms like Cover Genius, Qover, Bolttech and Stripe Insurance ship in weeks with inherited licensing and compliance. Custom insurance software makes sense when: you need unique underwriting models, regulatory ownership, proprietary claims workflows, or scale that makes per-policy pricing dominate. We have recommended Cover Genius over custom builds for travel and e-commerce embedded insurance.
Pharos insurance portfolio
Pharos insurance software delivery portfolio observations, 2019-2026
Ranges we consistently see across 12+ insurance engagements.
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Parity with tariff reference fixtures held to within 0.01% on every deploy; historical premium reproducibility 100% from stored version hash.
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20-36 weeks from discovery to production-ready multi-product platform including rate engine, binding workflow and basic claims intake[1].
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45-65% of straight-through claims auto-adjudicated on stable lines; remainder to human adjusters with structured context packet.
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50%+ of insurance engagements involve some legacy system migration; typical phased approach with strangler fig pattern over 12-18 months[5].
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6-12 months typical for insurance platforms; covers rate table updates, regulatory filings integration and incident response.
Insurance software development outlook 2026-2027
Three shifts are reshaping insurance platform engineering.
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First-party auto and property insurers move claims triage ML models from experimental to production-critical. Carriers without ML-assisted claims see measurably higher cycle time and loss-adjustment expenses[1].
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MGAs and carriers open policy-binding APIs for embedded distribution via mobility, travel and e-commerce partners. Insurers without modern API estate forfeit embedded distribution economics[11].
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Rating engines incorporate cyber risk scores, climate exposure and behavioural telemetry as first-class inputs. Legacy rating platforms without telemetry ingestion become structurally mis-priced[7].
Our four-dimension insurance software evaluation template
Every insurance platform engagement we ship runs against the same four-dimension readiness evaluation before handover.
Production post-mortem
When a rate engine regression priced 2 weeks of new-business policies outside tariff
A specialty insurer platform we shipped in Q1 2025 had a rating engine refactor with a regression that affected a single optional coverage rider for 13 days. Quoted premiums for ~820 policies were 4-7% below tariff. A rate-parity contract test picked up the deviation on deploy of the next minor release, and the policies were flagged for book-of-business correction. No customer impact; carrier absorbed the delta.
Rate-parity contract tests now run pre-merge on every rating-engine change, comparing output against a frozen tariff reference fixture across 5,000+ representative risks. Policy binding now records rate-engine version hash for full auditability.
Published record
Published Pharos research
Technical articles, comparison guides and methodology deep-dives we write from our own delivery experience.
- State of AI Development Costs 2026
- AI Agent Frameworks Comparison 2026
- Build vs Buy AI Agent: 2026 Decision Framework
- RAG vs Fine-Tuning: When to Use Each Approach
- How to Choose an AI Development Company
- State of Smart Contract Audits 2026
- State of Production AI Engineering 2026
- State of FinTech Compliance Cost 2026
- State of Custom Software TCO 2026
- State of AppSec 2026
- State of Tech Due Diligence 2026
- How to Choose a Blockchain Development Company
- How to Choose a FinTech Development Company
- FinTech Compliance Checklist 2026: PCI DSS, SOC 2, GDPR and Beyond
- AI in FinTech: Transforming Financial Services in 2026
- Software Development Cost Guide: What to Expect in 2026
- How to Choose a Software Development Company in 2026
- Cybersecurity Essentials for Startups and SMBs in 2026
- FinTech Trends 2026: How Top FinTech Trends are Shaping Digital Banking
Platforms We Work With
Trusted by Coinbase, Consensys, Core Scientific, MicroStrategy, Gate.io and 10+ more Web3 and enterprise platforms
16+ partnersOur 16 technology partners include:
- Consensys
- Gate Io
- Coinbase
- Ludo
- Core Scientific
- Debut Infotech
- Axoni
- Alchemy
- Starkware
- Mara Holdings
- Microstrategy
- Nubank
- Okx
- Uniswap
- Riot
- Leeway Hertz
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Consensys
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Gate Io
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Coinbase
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Ludo
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Core Scientific
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Debut Infotech
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Axoni
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Alchemy
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Starkware
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Mara Holdings
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Microstrategy
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Nubank
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Okx
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Uniswap
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Riot
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Leeway Hertz
Insurance technology we build
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Claims processing automationAI-powered claims intake, assessment and routing. Automated fraud detection, document verification and settlement workflow. -
Underwriting systemsData-driven underwriting platforms with risk scoring models, third-party data integration and automated policy generation.
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Policy management platformsEnd-to-end policy lifecycle management with self-service portals, renewal automation and compliance reporting.
About Founder and CTO
Founder and CTO Pharos Production
I design and build reliable software solutions – from lightweight apps to high-load distributed systems and blockchain platforms.
PhD in Artificial Intelligence, MSc in Computer Science (with honors), MSc in Electronics & Precision Mechanics.
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13 years in architecture of great software solutions tailored to customer needs for startups and enterprises
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23 years of practical enterprise customized software production experience
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Lecturer at the National Kyiv Polytechnic University
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Doctor of Philosophy in Artificial Intelligence
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Master’s degree in Computer Science, completed with excellence
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Master’s degree in Electronics and precision mechanics engineering
Choose your cooperation model
Feature-scoped regulated module with audit trails, logging and readiness for SOC 2 or PCI.
Production platform with KYC, AML, PCI DSS alignment, secure payments and observability.
Multi-region, multi-tenant platform with full compliance, fraud detection and 24/7 incident response.
Prices vary based on project scope, complexity, timeline and requirements. Contact us for a personalized estimate.
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Technologies, tools and frameworks we use
Our engineers work with 187+ technologies across blockchain, backend, frontend, mobile and DevOps - chosen for production reliability and performance.
AI and Machine Learning
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AI Frameworks 15
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MLOps and Infrastructure 11
AI Agent Tools 4
Blockchains
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Brokers
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Tests
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Partnerships & Awards
Recognized on Clutch, GoodFirms and The Manifest for software engineering excellence
An approach to the development cycle
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Team Assembly
Our company starts and assembles an entire project specialists with the perfect blend of skills and experience to start the work.
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MVP
We’ll design, build, and launch your MVP, ensuring it meets the core requirements of your software solution.
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Production
We’ll create a complete software solution that is custom-made to meet your exact specifications.
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Ongoing
Continuous Support
Our company will be right there with you, keeping your software solution running smoothly, fixing issues, and rolling out updates.
FAQ
Quick answers to common questions about custom software development, pricing, process and technology.
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No. Pharos Production builds insurance software; the client (or a carrier/MGA partner) holds the insurance license. We integrate with client carrier partners or InsurTech platforms (Cover Genius, Qover, Bolttech) but we do not hold insurance carrier, broker, MGA or TPA licenses ourselves.
Regulatory licensing, actuarial approval and customer-facing insurance responsibility belong to the licensed entity.
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For early-stage embedded insurance and direct-to-consumer launches, InsurTech platforms (Cover Genius, Qover, Bolttech, Stripe Insurance, Tint) ship in weeks with inherited licensing - that is usually the right starting point. Move to custom when: you hit platform pricing or feature ceilings, you need products the platform has not built, you need direct carrier economics at scale, or regulatory ownership becomes a differentiator.
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Insurance MVP 4-7 months: 4-6 weeks discovery and regulatory review, 12-18 weeks build (policy admin, quote engine, underwriting rules, claims processing, integrations, audit trails), 4-6 weeks integration testing with carrier systems and regulator-aware UAT. Full platform with multi-product support and custom underwriting runs 9-18 months.
Regulatory review and actuarial coordination are critical-path items.
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Yes. We integrate with Guidewire, Duck Creek, Majesco, Sapiens, Applied Epic and legacy AS/400 systems via SOAP, REST, file-based batch and event-driven middleware.
Common pattern: abstraction layer that isolates the product layer from the core so new products can launch in weeks without touching the core release cycle. We do not recommend core replacement as a first step - modernization around the core is usually a better fit.
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Layered approach: (1) OCR + computer vision for document extraction (Textract + custom models); (2) risk scoring model to route claims by complexity (auto-approve, human review, adjuster review, fraud investigation); (3) payout routing and reconciliation; (4) full audit trail for every decision. Low-risk claims auto-approve in under a minute; medium-risk go to human review with pre-populated fields; high-risk go to adjusters.
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Insurance is state-by-state in the US and country-by-country in Europe. We map the target jurisdictions during discovery and design the product to meet the strictest requirements across the footprint.
Compliance work includes: audit trails on every policy and claim state transition, regulator-ready reporting exports, data retention rules, consent management and examiner walkthroughs. Actuarial approval is the client responsibility with our software support.
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Insurance MVP $80,000-$200,000. Full platform $200,000-$600,000+.
Carrier integration adds $40,000-$150,000 depending on the carrier system complexity. Ongoing retainer from $12,000/month for infrastructure, compliance monitoring and feature iteration. Cost drivers: number of products, jurisdictional complexity, claims automation depth, carrier integration count.
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We decline full core replacements without carrier/MGA partners, insurance products without regulatory counsel, underwriting automation without a client-side actuarial partner, products where existing InsurTech infrastructure would ship in weeks, and “build our own carrier” projects without a licensing strategy. Forcing an insurance build without the regulatory and actuarial foundation damages everyone.
The Pharos takeaway on insurance software development
Insurance rewards teams that treat regulatory complexity as architecture, not paperwork. Pharos ships insurance systems with rate-engine parity testing, state-by-state variant versioning and auditable policy binding from commit level[8].
Book a 30-minute insurance platform readiness call
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Headquarters in Las Vegas, Nevada. Engineering office in Kyiv, Ukraine.