---
title: General Magic Raises $7.2M to Run Insurance Over Text
description: Toronto-based General Magic has raised $7.2M to build AI agents that run insurance workflows entirely over SMS, cutting quote times from 30 minutes to three.
author: Darie Nani (Editor-in-Chief)
date: 2026-02-24T11:21:39.000Z
updated: 2026-02-26T19:18:36.853Z
canonical: https://www.sovereignmagazine.com/article/general-magic-raises-7-2m-to-run-insurance-over-text
image: https://cdn.nanimediahouse.com/general-magic-ai-insurance-sms.webp
categories: Startups
content_type: Spotlight
region: Toronto
publication: Sovereign Magazine
about:
  - type: Organization
    name: General Magic
    description: General Magic is an AI company headquartered in Toronto building SMS-native agents that power insurance workflows through natural language. The platform translates customer messages into actions across core insurance systems, making it possible to quote, service, renew and manage claims entirely over text. The company has raised $8.4 million to date, backed by Radical Ventures, a16z Speedrun, Comma Capital and operators from Cohere, Figma and OpenAI. More information is available at generalmagic.inc .
    url: https://generalmagic.inc/
    sameAs:
      - https://www.linkedin.com/company/opensesame1/
---

General Magic, a Toronto-based startup building SMS-native AI agents for insurance, has raised $7.2 million in a seed round led by Radical Ventures. a16z Speedrun participated alongside angel investors including Figma VP of Product Brendan O’Driscoll and Larry James Erwin from OpenAI. The company has raised $8.4 million to date.

![The General Magic team: Aditya, Anthony, Parsa, Jai and Aaron](https://cdn.nanimediahouse.com/general-magic-team-photo.webp)

The core product, called Cell, handles insurance workflows entirely through text messages. In early deployments with one of the world’s largest general insurers, it reduced time-to-quote from roughly 30 minutes to under three minutes and cut inbound calls by 30 per cent.

## Why Text Messages, Not Another App

Insurance is one of the few industries where the customer interaction pattern (infrequent, high-stakes, document-heavy) makes SMS a better channel than apps or web portals. Customers do not download an app for something they use twice a year. They do not log into a portal to answer a follow-up question about their claim. They do, however, respond to text messages.

That is the bet General Magic is built on. Rather than building another dashboard or customer portal, the company built an AI agent that meets customers in the channel they already use. The result is that follow-ups happen faster, documents get collected without phone calls and conversations do not stall between quote and purchase.

The drop-off between initial quote and policy purchase is one of the most expensive problems in insurance distribution. Customers express interest, receive a quote, then disappear into a cycle of missed calls and unanswered emails. As digital distribution accelerates and customers shop more aggressively at renewal, brokers and carriers that fail to close that gap lose revenue they already worked to generate.

## How Cell Connects to Insurance Systems

Cell integrates directly with broker management systems, quoting and rating platforms, CRMs and policy administration tools. When a customer texts, the agent responds using real system data, asks for missing information, follows up automatically and updates records as workflows progress. Conversations stay in a single thread and context is preserved across interactions.

The agent operates across three insurance lifecycle stages: pre-quote eligibility, post-quote engagement and claims coordination. In auto and life insurance workflows, where post-quote follow-through and customer coordination are most critical, early deployments show teams saving over 250 hours monthly.

General Magic is also training its agents to reflect the realities of insurance distribution, including licensing and regulatory frameworks such as RIBO and OTL. By specialising agents around how licensed professionals communicate, the company aims to ensure conversations stay compliant with how insurance teams actually explain coverage.

## The Founders

Anthony Azrak and Jai Mansukhani are second-time founders who previously sold AI products into legacy industries. The company started as OpenSesame, a general-purpose agentic AI platform that entered [a16z’s Speedrun accelerator](https://www.sovereignmagazine.com/article/why-a16z-just-rushed-25-million-into-furtherai-and-insurance-s-least-sexy-problem) in mid-2025 as the sole Canadian company in its cohort. It rebranded to General Magic later that year after pivoting to focus exclusively on insurance.

The pivot came from personal experience. After a water leak spiralled into weeks of calls, delays and higher premiums, the founders began investigating how common that experience was. What they found was an industry where the systems technically work but routinely fail customers and intermediaries at the moments that matter most.

‘Insurance breaks down when follow-through depends on calls, inboxes and memory,’ said Mansukhani. ‘We built agents that handle the work that frustrates customers and teams the most. When routine clarification is automated, teams move faster and customers feel taken care of.’

## The Investment Case

Radical Ventures manages over $2.5 billion and specialises in AI-first companies at the seed and Series A stages. The firm has backed six unicorns including Cohere, Waabi and Xanadu. Partner David Katz, who previously founded InsLogic (a P&C insurance marketplace acquired by Capital One), gives the firm direct sector expertise.

‘Most of the world’s financial and insurance data is locked inside rigid, legacy systems that were never designed for the AI era,’ said Sanjana Basu, partner at Radical Ventures. ‘General Magic is not trying to convince enterprises to throw away that infrastructure. Instead, they are giving them a way to finally talk to it.’

a16z Speedrun’s involvement extends its growing position in insurance AI. The firm [led FurtherAI’s $25 million Series A](https://www.sovereignmagazine.com/article/why-a16z-just-rushed-25-million-into-furtherai-and-insurance-s-least-sexy-problem) for back-office workflow automation in October 2025. General Magic targets the opposite end of the stack: the customer-facing engagement layer where follow-through fails.

‘We have watched Anthony and Jai grow exponentially both during their Speedrun cohort and in the months after,’ said Troy Kirwin, investment partner at a16z Speedrun. ‘They are building a truly compelling product that we believe will revolutionise workflows across insurance carriers and brokerages globally.’

Additional backers include Comma Capital and operators who have built foundational AI and product platforms, including Aidan Gomez (CEO of Cohere) and the executive team at Braze.

## What the Capital Funds

General Magic plans to expand across insurance lines and workflows, focusing on moments where customer intent is high and coordination most often breaks down. The platform is being built to support high-impact workflows across the insurance stack, with auto and life insurance as the starting points.

The long-term goal is to make follow-through automatic and invisible. By removing the need for manual chasing and fragmented handoffs, insurance teams spend less time managing processes and more time on the work that requires human judgement.

## Further Context

**Q: Can AI be used in claims processing?**
AI is already handling several stages of claims processing for major insurers, from initial notification of loss through document collection and damage assessment. Systems can extract information from photographs, cross-reference policy terms and flag potential fraud patterns faster than manual review. The biggest gains come not from replacing adjusters but from eliminating the administrative overhead that delays settlements. McKinsey estimates that AI-assisted claims automation could reduce processing costs by up to 30 per cent across property and casualty lines. The technology works best for high-volume, lower-complexity claims where the approval criteria are well defined.

**Q: Can AI do insurance verification?**
AI verification systems can confirm coverage details, check policy status and validate eligibility in seconds rather than the minutes or hours that manual checks require. In health insurance, AI-driven verification reduces claim denials caused by eligibility errors, which account for a significant share of rejected claims. The process works by connecting to insurer databases through APIs, pulling real-time coverage data and matching it against the specific service or product being quoted. Accuracy improves because the system eliminates transcription errors and applies consistent rules across every check. Most implementations today work alongside human reviewers rather than replacing them entirely.

**Q: What is the best AI for insurance agents?**
The answer depends on which part of the workflow needs improvement. For voice-based interactions (inbound and outbound calls), platforms like Sonant and Observe.ai specialise in converting routine phone conversations into structured data and automated follow-ups. For document processing and back-office automation, FurtherAI and EXL focus on reducing manual handling of submissions, endorsements and renewals. For customer-facing engagement over text, General Magic and similar SMS-native platforms handle the follow-up and coordination work that keeps quotes moving to close. The most effective deployments typically combine multiple tools across different parts of the insurance lifecycle rather than relying on a single platform.

**About General Magic**

General Magic is an AI company headquartered in Toronto building SMS-native agents that power insurance workflows through natural language. The platform translates customer messages into actions across core insurance systems, making it possible to quote, service, renew and manage claims entirely over text. The company has raised $8.4 million to date, backed by Radical Ventures, a16z Speedrun, Comma Capital and operators from Cohere, Figma and OpenAI. More information is available at generalmagic.inc .

[Website](https://generalmagic.inc/)