Besto
Bestow helps life insurance carriers digitize distribution and underwriting operations end-to-end.
Bestow is a cloud-native SaaS platform purpose-built for life insurance carriers, providing end-to-end coverage from digital distribution and underwriting through policy administration and TPA services on a single unified system. The platform enables carriers to launch new products in 4-6 months versus traditional industry timelines of 12-14 months, with case studies showing 200%+ conversion rate increases and 22% underwriting cost reductions. Bestow differentiates through deep insurance domain expertise from founding team members who built category-leading companies, modern API-first architecture, and proven results with top carriers including Nationwide, Transamerica, and USAA.
Problem solved
Life insurance carriers face 12-14 month product launch cycles, fragmented legacy systems across distribution/underwriting/admin, manual underwriting processes, and inability to compete with digital-native competitors.
Target customer
Top 20 and mid-market life insurance carriers seeking to modernize digital distribution, underwriting, and policy administration; carriers launching new product lines (term, final expense, IUL, annuities).
Founders
M
Melbourne O'Banion
CEO & Co-Founder
Founded Presidio Title (leading Texas title insurance agency) and Beauty Bioscience; BYU Finance/Ancient Near Eastern Studies degree; 2021 EY Entrepreneur Of The Year finalist.
J
Jonathan Abelmann
President & Co-Founder
Co-founded Invitation Homes (NYSE: INVH), scaled to $25B with Blackstone; former Starwood Capital private equity investor; 2024 Henry Crown Fellowship member; BYU graduate.
Funding history
Seed
$2.5M
August 2017
Led by New Enterprise Associates
· Morpheus Ventures
Series A
Unknown
May 2018
Led by Valar Ventures
Series B & C
$120M
2020
Led by Multiple
Series C
$70M
December 2020
Led by Breyer Labs
Series D
$120M
May 2025
Led by Goldman Sachs, Smith Point Capital
· $75M primary, $45M secondary
Total raised:
$300M+ equity funding (plus $50M credit facility)
Industries
Pricing
Enterprise SaaS with usage-based and performance-based revenue model; pricing not publicly disclosed. Contact sales for custom quote based on transaction volume and features.
Notable customers
Nationwide, Transamerica, USAA, Sammons Financial Group, Equitable
Integrations
Salesforce, Stripe, DocuSign, Amazon Web Services, Google Analytics, and carrier-native APIs and workflows
Tech stack
jQuery (JavaScript libraries)
YouTube (Video players)
HTTP/3
DocuSign
Quora Pixel (Analytics)
Linkedin Insight Tag (Analytics)
Google Analytics (Analytics)
Facebook Pixel (Analytics)
HSTS (Security)
Apple iCloud Mail (Webmail)
jsDelivr (CDN)
jQuery CDN (CDN)
Cloudflare (CDN)
Twitter Ads (Advertising)
Nextdoor Ads (Advertising)
Microsoft Advertising (Advertising)
Pinterest Ads (Advertising)
LiveIntent (Email)
DoubleClick Floodlight (Advertising)
Stripe (Payment processors)
Tealium (Tag managers)
Google Tag Manager (Tag managers)
Salesforce (CRM)
Amazon Web Services (PaaS)
Amazon SES (Email)
Wootric (Customer data platform)
Website
Competitors
Ethos
Ethos focuses on insurance brokerage and distribution; Bestow provides complete end-to-end platform including underwriting, bind, and administration.
Fabric
Broader insurtech player; Bestow is specialized exclusively for life insurance carriers with deeper domain expertise and compliance built-in.
Avibra
Focuses on specific underwriting workflows; Bestow covers full value chain from distribution through policy administration.
Ebix
Legacy financial software vendor; Bestow offers modern cloud-native architecture with faster implementations and API-first design.
Why this matters: Bestow is one of the few fintech companies achieving genuine scale in a complex, regulated industry (life insurance), with $300M+ raised and 100% customer retention including top carriers like Nationwide and USAA. The May 2025 Series D led by Goldman Sachs signals institutional confidence in the company's ability to consolidate fragmented life insurance technology stacks.
Best for: Life insurance carriers of all sizes seeking to launch digital products faster, reduce underwriting costs, and compete with modern insurtech players while maintaining regulatory compliance.
Use cases
Fast Product Launch
A top 20 carrier needs to launch a final expense product to compete with digital competitors. Using Bestow's platform, they build product design, underwriting rules, and quote/application flow in 7 months instead of 12-14, with instant underwriting decisions for 100% of applications, capturing market share before competitors.
Conversion Rate Optimization
A mid-market carrier sees application abandonment at 40% due to lengthy manual processes. Bestow's streamlined 5-minute application flow and integrated underwriting increases conversion rates 200%+, directly improving top-line revenue without additional marketing spend.
Cost Reduction & Efficiency
A carrier's underwriting department has high manual costs and slow turnaround times. Bestow's Recommendation Engine and automated workflows reduce underwriting costs by 22% and cost-per-submitted-application by 22%, improving unit economics while improving customer experience.
Agent & Advisor Enablement
A carrier with large independent agent and advisor network struggles to provide modern quoting tools. Bestow's agent drop ticket experiences and hybrid distribution support enable agents to quote products in their own systems, driving agent productivity and policy volume.
Alternatives
Legacy in-house systems
Custom-built systems are inflexible, expensive to maintain, and slow to update; Bestow offers faster time-to-market and lower total cost of ownership.
Best-of-breed point solutions
Multiple vendors for quote, underwriting, and admin create integration complexity and slower workflows; Bestow unifies these on a single insurance-native platform.
Ethos or Fabric
Broader platforms may focus on distribution or specific functions; Bestow is end-to-end and life-insurance-specific with deeper domain expertise.
FAQ
What does Bestow do? +
Bestow provides a cloud-native SaaS platform for life insurance carriers covering digital distribution, quote, application, underwriting, bind, and policy administration on a single unified system. The platform includes a sophisticated underwriting engine, agent/advisor experiences, payment and billing, policy delivery, and full third-party administrator (TPA) services.
How much does Bestow cost? +
Bestow uses an enterprise SaaS model with usage-based and performance-based pricing based on transaction volume and features. Pricing is not publicly available; contact sales for a custom quote.
How fast can we launch a new product with Bestow? +
Bestow enables carriers to launch new products in 4-6 months, compared to traditional industry timelines of 12-14 months. A case study shows a carrier launched a final expense product in 7 months with instant underwriting for 100% of applications.
Who uses Bestow? +
Bestow serves top 20 and mid-market life insurance carriers. Notable customers include Nationwide, Transamerica, USAA, Sammons Financial Group, and Equitable.
How does Bestow compare to alternatives like Ethos or Fabric? +
Bestow is the only end-to-end platform built exclusively for life insurance, covering distribution through policy administration on one system. Competitors like Ethos focus on brokerage/distribution or are broader platforms. Bestow differentiates through insurance domain expertise from founding team, modern architecture, faster implementations (4-6 months), and proven results with top carriers (200%+ conversion increases, 22% cost reductions).
What products does Bestow support? +
Bestow currently supports term life, final expense, and universal life (IUL launching 2025). Annuities are launching in 2026. The platform supports new product structures including parent owners, third-party payors, and juvenile products.
Who are Bestow's founders? +
Melbourne O'Banion (CEO) founded Presidio Title and Beauty Bioscience; Jonathan Abelmann (President) co-founded Invitation Homes (NYSE: INVH, scaled to $25B). Both are BYU graduates and 2021 EY Entrepreneur of the Year finalists.
Tags
life insurance
SaaS
insurtech
underwriting
distribution
policy administration
digital transformation