Bestow

Life insurance technology: digital origination, policy admin, algorithmic underwriting without medical exams, and APIs for partner carriers. Founded 2016, Dallas. $300M+ raised, $120M Series D.

Services InsurTech / Life Insurance Technology
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★ ★ ★ ★ ★ New (0 reviews)
Dallas, TX, USA (+ Austin) HQ
201-1000 company size
2016 founded

What is Bestow?

Bestow is a life insurance technology company building the software that modern life insurance runs on. Its platform covers digital origination and policy administration, algorithmic underwriting that removes the traditional medical exam for many applicants, and a set of APIs that let partners including carriers, banks, and brokerages offer their own branded life insurance coverage without building the machinery themselves. The company started life as a direct-to-consumer insurer and has since moved its centre of gravity toward being an infrastructure and technology provider to the wider industry, which is the more significant part of the business today. Bestow was founded in 2016 by Melbourne O'Banion, who serves as chief executive, and Jonathan Abelmann, who is President. It is headquartered in the Deep Ellum district of Dallas, Texas, with an additional office in Austin. It has raised more than $300 million in equity funding across its history, most recently a $120 million oversubscribed Series D co-led by Growth Equity at Goldman Sachs Alternatives and Smith Point Capital, announced in May 2025. One practical note: Bestow previously ran a separate engineering site at tech.bestow.com, which now redirects to its main domain, so its technology and careers content has been consolidated.

Mission & values

Make life insurance accessible to more families by rebuilding how it is underwritten, sold, and administered in software.

Qualifications

Bestow is a technology company operating inside a heavily regulated industry, and its hiring reflects both halves of that. On the engineering side it hires backend, full-stack and platform engineers building the origination, underwriting, and policy administration systems, plus the partner-facing APIs that carriers and banks integrate against, alongside data engineering, machine learning, site reliability, and security roles. The algorithmic underwriting work in particular means data science and actuarial-adjacent modelling is central rather than peripheral, since replacing a medical exam with a model is the core technical bet of the business. Because life insurance is state-regulated in the US, it also hires substantially in compliance, legal, risk, and insurance operations, and domain experience in insurance or regulated financial services is a strong differentiator across both technical and non-technical roles. Beyond that it hires product management and design, partnerships and business development for its API and enterprise channel, customer support, marketing, finance, and people functions. Offices are in Dallas, its Deep Ellum headquarters, and Austin, so check each posting for whether it is office-based, hybrid, or remote, since the company does not publish a blanket remote policy. Note that its engineering careers content, formerly at tech.bestow.com, now sits on the main bestow.com site.

Leadership

M

Melbourne O'Banion

Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer

Co-founded Bestow in 2016 and leads it as CEO, steering it from a direct-to-consumer life insurer into a technology and infrastructure provider for the wider insurance industry, raising over $300M in equity.

J

Jonathan Abelmann

Co-Founder & President

Co-founded Bestow in 2016 with Melbourne O'Banion and serves as President, helping build its digital origination, underwriting, and partner API business.

Hiring process

  1. 1

    Apply via bestow.com careers

    Engineering, data, product, compliance, partnerships and corporate roles. Note the former tech.bestow.com engineering site now redirects to the main domain.

  2. 2

    Recruiter screen

    Confirms role fit, level, whether the position is Dallas, Austin, hybrid or remote, work authorization, and pay expectations.

    About 7 days

  3. 3

    Technical or domain interview

    Engineering: coding and system design for origination, underwriting and partner APIs. Data science: modelling relevant to algorithmic underwriting. Compliance: a regulated-insurance scenario.

    About 10 days

  4. 4

    Panel interviews

    Cross-functional interviews on depth and on judgment in a state-regulated insurance environment where underwriting decisions carry legal weight.

    About 10 days

  5. 5

    Offer

    Offer with equity where applicable, aligned to role and location across its Dallas and Austin footprint.

    About 7 days

Funding

StageSeries C+
Total raised$300,000,000
Investors
Growth Equity at Goldman Sachs Alternatives (Series D co-lead) Smith Point Capital (Series D co-lead)

Awards & recognition

  • Raised a $120M oversubscribed Series D co-led by Goldman Sachs Alternatives · 2025

    Bestow

  • Raised over $300M in equity to rebuild life insurance infrastructure · 2026

    Bestow

Company information

  • Industry: InsurTech / Life Insurance Technology
  • Location: Dallas, TX, USA (+ Austin)
  • Founded: 2016
  • Company size: 201-1000
  • Website: www.bestow.com ↗
  • LinkedIn: Company page ↗

Frequently asked questions

What does Bestow do?
It builds life insurance technology: digital origination and policy administration, algorithmic underwriting that removes the traditional medical exam for many applicants, and APIs that let carriers, banks and brokerages offer their own branded life insurance. It began direct-to-consumer and has shifted toward being an industry infrastructure provider.
Who founded and runs Bestow?
Melbourne O'Banion, who is CEO, and Jonathan Abelmann, who is President, founded it in 2016. It is headquartered in the Deep Ellum district of Dallas, Texas, with an additional office in Austin.
How is Bestow funded?
It has raised more than $300 million in equity, most recently a $120 million oversubscribed Series D co-led by Growth Equity at Goldman Sachs Alternatives and Smith Point Capital, announced in May 2025.
Are Bestow jobs remote?
Not published as a blanket policy. It has offices in Dallas and Austin, so check each posting for whether the role is office-based, hybrid, or remote rather than assuming.
Why does tech.bestow.com redirect?
That was Bestow's separate engineering and technology careers subdomain. It now 301-redirects to www.bestow.com, meaning the engineering content has been consolidated into the main site. The redirect is expected behaviour, not a broken link.
What roles does Bestow hire?
Backend, full-stack and platform engineering, data engineering and machine learning (central to its algorithmic underwriting), SRE and security, plus compliance, legal, risk and insurance operations given US state regulation, alongside product, design, partnerships, support and corporate functions.

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