Valgo (YC W26) — Insurance risk layer for physical AI

In their words

Insurers struggle to price autonomous systems because the historical data simply doesn't exist. Your car insurance draws from over 30 billion claims records, but autonomous trucks and robots have nearly zero. Valgo is the risk quantification platform that closes that gap. We are building probabilistic models of routes, tasks, and environments from the bottom up. We output a simulated loss estimate that insurers need to price coverage. Valgo is the foundational layer that gives insurance providers confidence to properly price autonomy risk. Our team combines expertise in risk estimation for autonomy with deep experience in the insurance industry. Sydney and Robert are Stanford PhDs with leading expertise in safety of physical AI systems. Sydney wrote the textbook on validating safety-critical systems and teaches the course at Stanford. Robert spent 7 years at MIT Lincoln Laboratory on the core team that designed and validated an FAA-certified aircraft collision avoidance system, now a worldwide standard. Jon is a Sloan Fellow from the Stanford GSB and an actuary who spent over 12 years in insurance leadership and led over $5 billion in M&A as head of corporate development for one of the largest insurers in Asia-Pacific.

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