I know this may not sound sexy, and you might be thinking: How does this affect me? But this topic is critically important right now, as the world continues to grapple with a severe supply-chain crisis.
Everything that reaches you and your family—from toilet paper to life-saving medicines—moves by truck. And today, the trucking industry is under real threat. More than 90% of fleets nationwide operate fewer than 50 trucks, running on razor-thin margins. These small businesses are being pushed out, and far too often, insurance is the straw that breaks the camel’s back. It’s no surprise that “guaranteed next-day delivery” is becoming less guaranteed.
Here’s the core problem: since 2017, federal law has required trucks to install telematics devices called ELDs (Electronic Logging Devices). These devices collect rich, real-time data—speed, braking, driving behavior, and more. Yet most legacy insurers ignore this data entirely, choosing instead to raise rates across the board rather than reward safer fleets.
At Nirvana, we use billions of telematics data points—location, speed, video, weather, traffic patterns, and driving behavior—combined with proprietary machine-learning models to understand risk more accurately than anyone else in the market.
That intelligence allows us to deliver quotes in minutes instead of months—no endless phone calls, no faxes, no mountains of paperwork. We also provide ongoing, actionable recommendations: driver-specific coaching, route insights, and proactive safety guidance.
The result? Safer fleets can receive up to a 20% upfront discount. And when you’re a small operator, that difference is massive—especially when insuring a single truck can cost more than $15,000 per year.
Before founding Nirvana, I served as VP of Product at Samsara, one of the fastest-growing IoT companies in the world. During my time there, we scaled past $400M in ARR and worked with more than 20,000 fleets. I traveled everywhere—from Bakersfield, California, to Fort Smith, Arkansas, to Mt. Sterling, Illinois—meeting operators face to face.
Everywhere I went, the story was the same. These are good people. And what I heard over and over again was simple: “We just want our drivers to get home safely to their families.”
But they’re also business owners. They don’t just want to survive—they want to thrive. And yet, many saw their insurance costs climb year after year, even while doing everything right.
We believe they deserve better. Not an insurer that overcharges and disappears when something goes wrong, but a modern, data-driven insurance company built around transparency, speed, and partnership.
We started Nirvana in early 2021 and immediately saw overwhelming demand from fleets and agency partners like USI, HUB, Truck Writers, and Transtar. Our launch was more than 5× oversubscribed.
Today, we’re excited to share that we’ve raised over $25M—including a recently closed $22M Series A— backed by world-class investors such as Lightspeed, General Catalyst, Elad Gil, Fidji Simo, Spike Lip
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