Dakotah Rice
| Dakotah Rice | |
| Occupation | Entrepreneur, CEO of Harper |
|---|---|
| Known for | Co-founding Harper, an AI-native commercial insurance brokerage |
| Education | Brown University; Harvard Business School |
| Alma mater | Brown University, Harvard Business School |
Dakotah Rice is an American entrepreneur and the co-founder and CEO of Harper, an AI-native commercial insurance brokerage. He co-founded the company with Tusha Nair, and it was part of Y Combinator's Winter 2025 batch.[1]
Early life and education
Rice grew up in rural Alabama in a family of entrepreneurs; his father owned a nightclub, his uncle ran a trucking company, and his mother provided home health services. He attended Brown University and later earned a degree from Harvard Business School.[2]
Career
After graduating from Brown, Rice began his career in finance on Wall Street. He worked at Goldman Sachs for a year before moving into private equity at Carlyle and then into hedge funds at Coatue, where he focused on internet media investing over the course of four years. He subsequently enrolled at Harvard Business School.[2]
In 2021, Rice founded Poolit, a fintech platform designed to allow accredited investors to invest in private equity and venture capital funds. The company was based in Miami.[2]
Rice later co-founded Harper with Tusha Nair. The company, based in the San Francisco Bay Area, is building a commercial insurance brokerage that uses artificial intelligence to automate key workflows in the insurance placement process. Harper initially focuses on mid-sized businesses with complex insurance needs, offering coverage lines including general liability, professional liability, commercial auto, commercial property, cyber, garage liability, and umbrella insurance. The company's AI system is designed to learn from the expertise of its human brokers, with the stated goal of moving toward full autonomy in the brokerage process.[3]
In February 2026, Harper announced it had raised $47 million in combined Series A and seed funding.[3] By early 2026, the company had grown its team to more than 30 employees.
References
- ↑ "Harper – Y Combinator". 'Y Combinator}'. Retrieved 2026-03-18.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 "Harper: the AI-native brokerage shaking up the insurance industry". 'Antler}'. Retrieved 2026-03-18.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Harper". 'Harper}'. Retrieved 2026-03-18.