Herald

What it is

Herald started as a single API for commercial insurance. Software platforms and brokerages use it to quote and bind with many carriers through one integration. The company raised an $8 million seed round in December 2021, led by Lightspeed. Its first named customer was BindHQ, a management system for MGAs and wholesalers. Herald then raised a $12 million Series A in November 2024, co-led by Lightspeed and Brewer Lane Ventures.

At the Series A, Herald cited 35+ carrier partners offering 80+ products. The lines named were cyber, management liability, professional liability, BOP, GL and workers’ comp. It also said 8 of the 25 largest brokerages use it.

As of October 2026, heraldapi.com redirects to heraldai.com. The company now calls itself an AI placement system for brokerages. It added Babbix, an email-based AI agent that extracts quote data and drafts submissions, and Placement Workbench, where brokers track submissions and quotes. A July 2026 post says Herald connects to carriers through direct APIs, AI email submission and agent-operated carrier portals.

How it works

Herald’s developer docs describe this sequence:

1. Set up producers and connections. You create distributors and producers, then connect each producer to carrier products. Producers must already be appointed, and Herald verifies the appointment with each carrier’s login details.

2. Classify and build the application. You classify the business by NAICS or Herald’s industry codes. Herald combines the questions for the selected products. Quote exits warn you early when an answer guarantees a decline.

3. Submit. One submission goes to several carriers and creates a quote for each product.

4. Track quotes. Each quote starts as pending and moves to a status:

   • Active: priced and bindable.
   • Referral or referred: needs an underwriter.
   • Declined, rejected or unsupported.
   • Unresponsive or expired.

   Webhooks push status updates.

5. Bind. You complete a bind application with any extra details the carrier needs, such as payment information. You finish any required actions, and the policy can then be retrieved through the API.

Where it’s strong

• Built for custom workflows. Brokerages with their own CRM, AMS or client portal can put multi-carrier quoting inside it instead of sending staff to another app.
• Fall-out handling is documented. Most quoting tools don’t spell out what happens when a carrier refers or rejects a risk. Herald does.
• Specialty depth. The lines it names lean toward cyber, management liability and professional liability. Many main-street raters are weaker there.
• Room to grow. The changelog shows Autofill, PDF data extraction and bind support added in 2024 and 2025.

Where it falls short

• Not a turnkey rater. A typical agency without developers would need a Herald certified partner, such as Zywave or Broker Buddha, or another platform built on Herald.
• No public network list. Herald’s Insurance API Index catalogs carriers with APIs across the market. It was last updated in November 2024. It isn’t a list of carriers you can reach through Herald, so ask for the current network by state.
• Referral updates can lag. For referral quotes, Herald’s docs say it may not receive updates, and the carrier’s portal link shows the accurate status.
• Appointments are your job. Herald makes organization-level introductions but doesn’t appoint individual producers.
• No public reviews. We could not find G2 or Capterra reviews to summarize.

Pricing and setup

Herald does not publish pricing. The Pricing link on its site goes nowhere, and buyers are sent to a demo request. Setup means building against the API or hiring a certified partner. The docs include a quickstart guide and a developer portal. We could not confirm contract terms or typical implementation time.

Who should look elsewhere

• Agencies without developers should look at an agent-facing comparative rater that works out of the box.
• Agencies that need market access should consider an exchange that includes access appointments and a placement desk.
• Applied Epic or EZLynx shops should compare a rater built into their AMS.