When ISO and Verisk introduced standardized exclusions for generative AI in commercial liability policies this January, the fine print created what two Harvard-connected founders are calling a procurement trap for robotics and AI companies.
Risklytics, a two-person insurance brokerage recently accepted into Y Combinator's latest batch, launched in response to what it describes as a widening coverage blind spot. According to industry publication The Insurer, more than 60 property and casualty carriers have filed to adopt artificial intelligence exclusions this year. The concern, according to founders Sam Gold and Alex Risio, is that frontier tech companies working with generalist brokers often bind policies without catching the endorsements that eliminate AI-related claims.
"Carriers have started filing AI exclusions, and a generalist broker won't notice one sitting in a quote," the pair wrote in a May company announcement.
The startup positions itself as a specialist that reads every exclusion and endorsement before clients finalize coverage. Whether that expertise translates into sustainable business remains an open question for a firm that acknowledges it's still "in the process of obtaining insurance producer licensure" and not yet placing coverage, according to a disclaimer that appears on each page of its website.
Gold is on leave from Harvard. Risio's Y Combinator bio says he's "building a new type of insurance brokerage." Both pivoted to the commercial brokerage model from an earlier natural catastrophe modeling venture called Ember, though they've declined to share pipeline metrics or name any customers.
The Exclusion Wave
The ISO exclusions that took effect January 1—identified by endorsement codes CG 40 47, CG 40 48, and CG 35 08—represent the industry's first coordinated effort to carve out generative AI liability from standard commercial general liability policies, according to Business Insurance. The moves didn't stop there. WR Berkley introduced what Insurance Journal described in July as an "absolute AI exclusion" for directors and officers, errors and omissions, and fiduciary coverage in 2025 renewals. A June analysis by Gridex attempted to map which carriers had adopted exclusions across different policy forms.
Risklytics claims knowledge of which admitted and excess-and-surplus carriers still underwrite AI and physical-AI risks, though it hasn't publicly identified carrier or managing general agent relationships. The company's website outlines application packages that correspond to startup milestones: pilot deployments, production rollouts, higher limits as autonomous fleets scale.
"A standard commercial insurance application has no fields for how an autonomous machine actually operates," the firm noted in a guide published in August, positioning its intake process as structured for the technical details underwriters need.
The brokerage targets three segments: companies running AI agents or models in production environments, robotics operators whose machines work on customer sites, and builders of data center and energy infrastructure. It says it places general liability, technology errors and omissions, cyber liability, directors and officers, commercial property, equipment, workers' compensation, and umbrella policies.
A Crowded Field
Risklytics enters a market where venture-backed competitors have already staked territory. Harper, another YC-backed AI-native commercial brokerage, reported more than $6 million in annualized premiums across 35 states and raised $46.8 million across seed and Series A rounds in February 2026, TechCrunch reported. Counterpart, a managing general agent offering what it calls affirmative AI coverage, closed a $50 million Series C in April. Comeryx, focused on small commercial excess and surplus lines, raised $7.5 million in a seed round led by Altai Ventures in February.
Risklytics, part of Y Combinator's Summer 2026 batch, hasn't disclosed funding beyond Y Combinator's participation. The accelerator's standard package includes $500,000 in exchange for equity, though the startup hasn't published its cap table or detailed terms. The company's LinkedIn page shows a modest following and lists between two and 10 employees, consistent with the two-person headcount in the YC directory.
For now, the value proposition hinges on a straightforward claim: that specialty matters when the coverage landscape shifts beneath an entire industry. Whether reading fine print can become a moat is the bet Gold and Risio are making, in a sector where exclusions pile up faster than most clients realize.
