Shepherd and Brickeye Partner to Integrate IoT Risk Intelligence into Autonomous Underwriting

Quick Summary

Shepherd and Brickeye have partnered to integrate IoT risk intelligence directly into autonomous underwriting for construction. This collaboration allows builders using Brickeye’s IoT sensors to receive better insurance terms, reduced deductibles, and premium credits by providing Shepherd’s AI platform with real-time, verified jobsite safety data.

How Does IoT Risk Intelligence Improve Construction Insurance?

IoT risk intelligence serves as a bridge between physical jobsite safety and financial underwriting. By deploying sensors that monitor for water line bursts and thermal conditions in concrete, Brickeye provides a verified data stream that proves a project is lower risk. This eliminates the traditional reliance on historical data or manual site visits, allowing for real-time risk mitigation.

• 50% reduction in water loss deductibles for Brickeye clients.
• 4,500+ projects currently monitored across 20+ countries.
• Tiered protection classifications verified by a Certificate of Protection.

This structured data allows Shepherd to move away from email-driven underwriting, which typically takes weeks, toward a model that prices complex construction risk in mere minutes. By rewarding builders who invest in loss-prevention technology, the partnership creates a financial incentive for safer construction practices.

What Results Has Autonomous Underwriting Delivered for Builders?

The shift to autonomous underwriting has fundamentally changed how quickly and accurately Builder’s Risk coverage can be issued. Shepherd’s AI-native platform utilizes proprietary structured inputs to automate the pricing of high-value projects, having already covered over $400 billion in project value. This speed does not come at the cost of precision; rather, the IoT risk intelligence from Brickeye makes the pricing sharper.

• 7x revenue growth for Shepherd within the last 24 months.
• 1,500+ policies issued using AI-native underwriting technology.
• 150% year-over-year revenue growth for Brickeye’s risk platform.

For insurance brokers, this partnership offers a unique market differentiator. They can now place clients who utilize IoT risk intelligence into specialized programs that offer terms the standard insurance market cannot match. This creates a feedback loop where better jobsite data leads to a smarter, more competitive insurance model.

How Do Shepherd and Brickeye Solve the Construction Data Gap?

Historically, jobsite safety data remained siloed on the construction site, never reaching the underwriting decision-makers. Shepherd and Brickeye solve this by ensuring verified jobsite intelligence is priced in from day one. This partnership focuses initially on U.S. Builder’s Risk for vertical construction, specifically targeting water damage mitigation and concrete quality.

"De-risking a project starts before breaking ground. We assess design and risk in preconstruction, then deploy the IoT controls that inform how the project should be protected and underwritten," said Tim Angus, CEO of Brickeye. "From there, our platform mitigates risk in real time, catching a burst water line and triggering shut-off before it floods a site, or flagging thermal conditions in mass concrete before they cause defects. Until now, all that intelligence lived on the jobsite and never informed the underwriting decision. With Shepherd, it does, and the builders who protect their projects pay less for it."

"We built Shepherd on the thesis that, given the total cost of risk in large construction, financial services providers like us are uniquely positioned to incentivize loss prevention for the mutual benefit of ourselves and our customers," said Justin Levine, Co-Founder and CEO of Shepherd. "Brickeye gives us a verified, upfront picture of exactly how a Builder's Risk account is being protected, plus real-time physical-risk intelligence as it's built. That is precisely the kind of proprietary, structured input that lets our model earn more authority and act with more autonomy and precision over time."

FF NEWS TAKE:

This partnership is a significant milestone for IoT risk intelligence in the insurtech space. By moving beyond simple data collection to autonomous underwriting integration, Shepherd and Brickeye are proving that "connected construction" has a direct ROI in insurance premiums. This moves the needle by forcing traditional carriers to reconsider how they price Builder's Risk, shifting the industry from reactive claims handling to proactive, data-driven risk prevention.