Insurance Software Maker Lands $20M Round of Funding

Brea-based XDimensional Technologies Inc. has inked a $20 million round of funding to help boost sales and marketing of its Internet-based insurance software and services.

Alpharetta, Ga.-based data provider ChoicePoint Inc. and Hartford, Conn.-based insurer Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. provided the funding for XDimensional, which helps insurance brokers automate their systems via the Web.

Hartford Financial took a controlling stake in XDimensional in 2002 when it led a previous round of funding.

Terms of the latest deal weren't disclosed, but the funding was "co-led" by ChoicePoint and Hartford, said Michael Walther, XDimensional's chairman and chief executive.

Officials from ChoicePoint and Hartford joined XDimensional's board of directors as part of the company's funding rounds. ChoicePoint sells risk management and fraud prevention information, primarily to the insurance industry.

"Both Hartford and ChoicePoint are leaders in the insurance industry,Hartford from the insurance carrier side and ChoicePoint from the information services side," Walther said.

XDimensional doesn't disclose revenue or growth estimates, but Walther said the company has been adding employees at about 20% annually. It has some 120 workers.

About 90 employees are at the company's Brea headquarters and a separate data center in Brea, with the balance sprinkled throughout the country, including a sales office in Chicago and a facility in Hartford.

Walther said XDimensional's staff probably won't increase as quickly as it has in the past few years because most of the company's basic software designs are done.

XDimensional, which has been in operation since 1989, targets independent insurance agents who aren't aligned with a specific insurance carrier. Instead, these agents tap various insurance providers to find policies for each customer.

Walther joined XDimensional last year as chief executive and chairman.

He's the former chief executive of Irvine-based Centor Software Corp., which makes business software for auto, aerospace and industrial equipment industries. Prior to Centor, Walther was senior vice president of operations at Stamps.com Inc. in Los Angeles.

Insurance brokers need help in boosting their use of the Internet, Walther said.

"As you can guess, the insurance market is a very conservative market and has been very slow to fully adopt the capabilities of the Internet," Walther said.

Insurance brokers using XDimensional's software can find more easily via the Internet what kind of policies and prices insurance carriers are offering.

XDimensional has data centers that manage and store insurance information,eliminating the need for insurance agents to manage their own local Internet networks and storage devices.

The company began to shift from a general insurance consulting business to a seller of Web-based products in the late 1990s.

Its first major product was launched in 2002, and last year XDimensional came out with a software package that includes accounting functions.

"They're attracting agents that are technically savvy," said Pat Speer, editor-in-chief of Insurance Networking News, a trade publication out of Chicago.