Buckle Inc

Buckle Inc

Buckle launched to serve the gap between personal auto policies and the commercial coverage that rideshare and delivery drivers are required to carry. Standard insurers often cancel personal policies when they detect platform driving, while full commercial policies are prohibitively expensive for part-time gig workers. Buckle's hybrid policy covers both periods — personal use and app-on trips — eliminating the coverage split that has been a persistent friction point in the platform economy. The firm's underwriting approach uses mileage, driving behavior, and trip-specific data sourced from rideshare and delivery platforms, rather than relying heavily on credit scores or traditional actuarial proxies. Buckle operates as a managing general agent (MGA) with its own carrier, Gateway Insurance Company, giving it control over pricing, claims, and policy design. Known distribution partners include Uber and Lyft, where Buckle is offered as an integrated option during the driver sign-up process. Geographic coverage spans multiple US states, with a focus on urban markets where platform driving is concentrated. Buckle's corporate structure separates the MGA — which designs, prices, and distributes policies — from the regulated carrier entity that holds the underwriting risk. The firm acquired Gateway Insurance Company in 2017, a strategic move that gave it a licensed carrier shell and the ability to retain premiums on its own balance sheet. Team leadership includes industry veterans from both insurtech startups and legacy auto insurance carriers, though specific named executives are not consistently published across public sources. In 2020, Buckle raised $31 million in a Series A round led by Hudson Structured Capital Management and HSCM Bermuda (per the firm's press release, August 2020). What distinguishes Buckle structurally is the closed-loop partnership model with platforms. Rather than marketing directly to consumers, Buckle embeds insurance at the moment a driver is onboarded onto Uber or Lyft — a distribution moat that functions similarly to how Shopify integrates Stripe for payments. This platform-embedded MGA model means customer acquisition cost is tied to driver growth on partner platforms, and churn is partially mitigated by the requirement that platform drivers carry valid insurance to earn. The approach creates a structural alignment between insurer and platform that is absent in traditional broker-sold or direct-to-consumer auto insurance.