Polygrade Emerges from Stealth With $6.3M to Bring AI-Native Claims Management to the Warranty Industry

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Postmedia has not reviewed the content. by Business Wire Polygrade Emerges from Stealth With $6.3M to Bring AI-Native Claims Management to the Warranty IndustryAuthor of the article:Founded by veterans of Sears Home Services and Thumbtack, Polygrade uses AI agents to perform warranty claims work from diagnosis to contractor paymentTHIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLYSubscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.Exclusive articles from Barbara Shecter, Joe O'Connor, Gabriel Friedman, and others.Daily content from Financial Times, the world's leading global business publication.Unlimited online access to read articles from Financial Post, National Post and 15 news sites across Canada with one account.National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.Daily puzzles, including the New York Times Crossword.SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLESSubscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.Exclusive articles from Barbara Shecter, Joe O'Connor, Gabriel Friedman and others.Daily content from Financial Times, the world's leading global business publication.Unlimited online access to read articles from Financial Post, National Post and 15 news sites across Canada with one account.National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.Daily puzzles, including the New York Times Crossword.REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLESCreate an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.Access articles from across Canada with one account.Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments.Enjoy additional articles per month.Get email updates from your favourite authors.THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK.Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.Access articles from across Canada with one accountShare your thoughts and join the conversation in the commentsEnjoy additional articles per monthGet email updates from your favourite authorsSign In or Create an AccountTORONTO — Polygrade, an AI-native claims management platform for the warranty industry, today emerged from stealth with $6.3 million in funding from Construct Capital, American Family Ventures and Nine Four Ventures.Starting with home warranty, Polygrade is addressing an overlooked software category: warranty claims management. While existing technology records information, routes tickets and tracks claims, Polygrade uses specialized AI agents to perform claims work, from triage and authorization to parts sourcing and contractor payment.This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.Polygrade helps warranty companies determine what is wrong, what should happen next and how to resolve claims. By automating manual work across systems, Polygrade can reduce unnecessary service visits, accelerate repairs, lower claim severity and operating costs, and improve visibility. For contractors, that can mean faster authorizations, parts ordering and payment; for homeowners, a faster, more predictable repair experience.Get the latest headlines, breaking news and columns.By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc.A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder.The next issue of Top Stories will soon be in your inbox.We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try againPolygrade sits above a warranty company’s existing technology stack, turning data into actions and building a proprietary intelligence graph across policies, claims, decisions and outcomes, allowing each claim to inform future decisions.“Warranty is a massive industry that never really got its modern software moment,” said David Steckel, Founder and CEO of Polygrade. “The technology that exists is largely designed to keep track of a claim and move it through a workflow. We built Polygrade to understand the claim and act on it. If AI can help determine what’s wrong before a contractor gets in a truck, find the right part at the right price, make an authorization decision and get a contractor paid faster, the economics of the entire claim change.”Polygrade is already in production with enterprise warranty companies, including Fidelity National Home Warranty, and works with suppliers including Encompass, UED, Sibi and Marcone.“Encompass is excited about its partnership with Polygrade,” said Robert Coolidge, President and CEO of Encompass. “Encompass has long been a leading supplier of OEM replacement parts to the warranty industry, and this partnership strengthens our commitment to helping warranty providers improve parts availability, access more competitive pricing, and deliver the industry’s highest service levels.”Polygrade was founded by home services and warranty industry veterans. Steckel previously founded Setter, a home management platform backed by Sequoia Capital and acquired by Thumbtack, where he later helped build its home services businesses. He then joined Sears Home Services as Chief Product Officer, where he modernized its warranty integrations and direct-to-consumer product.That experience exposed recurring industry challenges including inefficient claims decisions, parts procurement, invoice disputes and slow contractor payments.Steckel is joined by Eui Chung, co-founder and CTO, a nearly 30-year Sears and Transformco veteran who led Sears Home Services’ AI transformation, and Kaustubh Vongole, co-founder and Head of Product, who led fulfillment products and AI strategy.This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.“David, Eui and Kaustubh have an unusual combination of deep domain expertise and technical experience,” said Rachel Holt, Cofounder & Managing Partner at Construct Capital. “They’ve run these operations at scale and understand why applying AI to a complex enterprise workflow requires much more than building a model. Polygrade has the potential to become the intelligence and execution layer for a massive category that has been largely overlooked by modern software.”Polygrade supports five stages of the claim lifecycle: first notice of loss, pre-dispatch triage, authorization, parts procurement and payment. Its specialized agents operate within rules and thresholds established by each warranty company, with exceptions escalated for human review.“We hold new technology to a simple standard: it has to improve the customer’s claim experience right away and lower costs,” said Jason Manns, EVP and COO at Fidelity National Home Warranty. “Polygrade accomplished both of those goals, while not requiring a wholesale replacement of the systems warranty companies depend on. We take our time, and we validate pilots before we scale. Polygrade stood out for bringing practical AI into our existing workflows, from smarter claims intake to parts procurement.”Early deployments have identified unnecessary service visits, repairs unlikely to resolve an issue and procurement overspend.Cinch Home Services works with Polygrade on appliance dispatch triage and parts sourcing.“The value has been tangible, and the pace has been impressive. We have streamlined processes, improved efficiency, and solved real operational problems on the parts side,” said Sandy Camera, Vice President, Service Network Operations, Cinch Home Services.Polygrade will use the funding to expand its Forward Deployed Engineering, go-to-market and partner enablement teams. The company plans to expand beyond home warranty into extended warranty, OEM warranty and equipment breakdown insurance.“There are enormous categories where a claim ends with something physical needing to be repaired or replaced,” Steckel said. “We think the infrastructure for managing those claims is going to look very different in an AI-native world.”is an AI-native claims management platform for the warranty industry. Polygrade uses specialized AI agents across the claims lifecycle, from first notice of loss through contractor payment. Founded in 2025 by veterans of Sears Home Services, Thumbtack and Setter, Polygrade has offices in Toronto, St. George, Utah and Austin, Texas, and serves warranty companies, suppliers and service providers across the United States. 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