A

Ascend

Automates agency billing, financing, payments

Lead Product Manager

Full-Time
$180k - $240k+ Equity
Senior
San Francisco, CA, USA
In PersonThe team works onsite in San Francisco.
ProductProduct Management

About the job

Requirements
  • At least 6 years of product management experience, including at least 3 years owning the vision, strategy, and outcomes for a major product area.
  • A track record of translating product strategy into successful launches and measurable customer and business results.
  • Experience building for enterprise customers with complex workflows and integration requirements.
  • Hands-on experience writing product and technical specifications with clear requirements, edge cases, and acceptance criteria.
  • Technical and analytical fluency to work with engineers on APIs, data models, and interconnected systems, and to use data to guide decisions.
  • Ability to articulate a compelling vision, make tradeoffs, and align cross-functional teams.
Responsibilities
  • Learn the platform, how customers work, and how money moves through the system.
  • Talk with customers about their financial operations, their challenges, remaining manual work, and needs as they grow.
  • Work with Engineering to understand APIs, data models, system behavior, and dependencies between products.
  • Review existing AI and automation, identify where exceptions and manual work occur, and understand their causes.
  • Present an initial assessment of opportunities based on customer feedback and data.
  • Define product vision and strategy based on customer needs and business goals.
  • Set operational-efficiency baselines, including manual touches, exception rates, and turnaround time, and establish reduction targets.
  • Translate strategy into a quarterly roadmap with priorities, tradeoffs, and expected outcomes.
  • Write product and technical specifications for top initiatives, including workflows, system requirements, edge cases, and acceptance criteria.
  • Align Product, Engineering, and leadership on priorities, sequencing, and success measures.
  • Own and evolve product vision, taking on more of the product area over time.
  • Build AI into product workflows to automate manual work and exception handling and reduce customer effort in financial operations.
  • Track automation performance, identify shortcomings, and improve it.
  • Build capabilities and tooling that scale with enterprise complexity and growth.
  • Lead initiatives from discovery and specification through launch and adoption, and be accountable for results.
  • Work with Engineering on API requirements, data flows, failure scenarios, and system tradeoffs.
  • Test ideas with prototypes and early releases, and make decisions on scope and sequencing.
  • Work across Design, Engineering, GTM, and Operations to simplify financial workflows and anticipate effects on other teams and products.
Desired Qualifications
  • B2B product experience in fintech, billing, or payments.
  • Experience in insurance, premium finance, lending, or loan management systems.
  • Experience building public APIs, platform integrations, or financial infrastructure at scale.
  • Experience building AI products or applying AI to financial workflows.

About the company

A

Ascend

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Website

Ascend is a financial technology company that automates agency bill operations for insurance agencies. Its software combines billing, premium financing, and carrier payable workflows into one platform, helping agencies manage bills, finance premiums, and issue carrier payments more efficiently. Agencies interact with a user-friendly portal that clearly presents financing options, enabling faster policy binding and premium collection without back-and-forth paperwork. By automating these processes, Ascend aims to increase profitability and efficiency for agencies, and differentiate itself by offering a single integrated solution rather than multiple separate tools. The company’s stated goals are to improve EBITDA, reduce operating costs, and save agents time, enabling them to serve their clients better.

Company Size

51-200

Company Stage

Debt Financing

Total Funding

$285.5M

Headquarters

San Francisco, California

Founded

2021

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Simplify Jobs

Simplify's Take

What believers are saying

  • Ascend says 4,000 businesses use it, including half of top 50 brokers.
  • Smart Inbox launched April 14, 2025, shrinking manual document entry and month-end close.
  • Cash Application launched November 4, 2025, cutting unapplied cash and speeding SOX 404 reporting.

What critics are saying

  • Regulators can block the Honor Capital merger, killing Ascend's financing moat in 2026.
  • Insurance agencies switching AMS360 or Vertafore breaks Ascend's embedded workflow and revenue.
  • Applied Systems, Vertafore, or carriers bundling automation compress margins and slow enterprise sales.

What makes Ascend unique

  • Ascend unifies agency bill, payments, reconciliation, and premium financing for insurance workflows.
  • March 3, 2026, CAA named Ascend its Accounting Automation Partner nationwide.
  • May 14, 2026, the Honor Capital merger adds native premium financing nationwide.

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Benefits

  • Health Insurance
  • 401(k) Company Match
  • 401(k) Retirement Plan
  • Unlimited Paid Time Off
  • Phone/Internet Stipend
  • Parental Leave

Growth & Insights and Company News

Headcount

6 month growth

4%

1 year growth

3%

2 year growth

3%
NetVU
Jul 22nd, 2026
Is your Agency Bill process ready for the busy season?

Is your Agency Bill process ready for the busy season? By gabby nguyen posted 2 days ago. Summer offers something that's hard to come by in insurance: a chance to pause before the pace picks up again. It's the ideal time to evaluate the operational processes that will either support - or slow down - your team during renewal season. One of the biggest opportunities? Agency Bill. Many agencies have modernized their front office but still rely on manual invoicing, emailed premium finance agreements, multiple payment systems, and time-consuming receipt posting behind the scenes. Those inefficiencies often become most visible when volume increases. If your team is spending more time on billing than serving clients, it may be worth asking: Are account managers spending time chasing payments instead of working with customers? Are payment updates, premium finance agreements, and carrier payables spread across multiple systems? Is accounting still manually tracking payment status and posting receipts? Will your current process scale as your agency grows? Three Arbor Insurance, an AMS360 agency serving businesses across Alabama and Georgia, reached that point as production increased. Rather than hiring additional operations staff, the agency chose to modernize its financial workflows. As President David Foster explained, "I could solve the problem in one of two ways: either hire more operations-focused employees, increasing the costs to run the agency, or find a solution that helped me get more out of the team I had today." By integrating Ascend with AMS360, Three Arbor created a single workflow for invoicing, payments, financing, receipt tracking, and carrier payables. The result was a measurable improvement in efficiency: account managers were no longer spending an estimated 20% of their time chasing payments, negotiating premium finance agreements, and ensuring carrier payments went out on time. The agency also increased EBITDA by 4% through financial operations automation. These small operational improvements made today can have an outsized impact when business picks up. Exclusive for NetVU members: Schedule an Agency Bill Workflow Assessment with Ascend to benchmark your current process and identify opportunities to reduce manual work within your existing Vertafore environment. No commitment required - just practical recommendations tailored to your agency. 0 comments

Pulse 2.0
May 14th, 2026
Ascend and Honor Capital merge to create first fully integrated insurance financial operations platform

Ascend and Honor Capital have agreed to merge, creating what they describe as the insurance industry's first fully vertically integrated financial operations platform. The combined entity will unify AI-powered accounting automation, invoicing, embedded payments and premium financing into a single solution for insurance businesses. Ascend's platform currently serves over 4,000 businesses, including more than half of the 50 largest US brokers. Honor Capital is the fourth-largest premium finance company in the United States, authorised to operate in all 50 states. Following the merger, Praveen Chekuri will serve as CEO alongside co-presidents Tony M. Perez and Andrew Wynn. Ascend co-founders Wynn and Chekuri established the company in 2021, whilst Perez has led Honor Capital for over a decade. The transaction remains subject to regulatory approvals.

PR Newswire
Mar 3rd, 2026
Ascend Named the Accounting Automation Partner for Combined Agents of America (CAA)

Ascend named the Accounting Automation Partner for Combined Agents of America (CAA). Mar 03, 2026, 09:42 ET SAN FRANCISCO, March 3, 2026 /PRNewswire/ - Ascend, the comprehensive financial operations automation platform for the insurance industry, today announced a strategic partnership with Combined Agents of America (CAA), one of the nation's largest privately held insurance aggregator groups. This partnership designates Ascend as the Accounting Automation Partner for CAA's nationwide network of independent agencies. The collaboration is designed to modernize back-office operations for CAA member agencies, replacing fragmented manual workflows with end-to-end automation for both agency and direct bill processes. Eliminating the Back-Office Bottleneck As independent agencies scale, accounting workflows - traditionally manual and error-prone - often become a primary bottleneck. Ascend's platform removes these hurdles by automating the most time-consuming aspects of the insurance lifecycle: * Commission Reconciliations: Eliminating hours spent processing and matching policy commissions. * Billing & Payments: Streamlining premium collection for a seamless client experience. * Carrier Payables: Accelerating commissions and increasing speed-to-bind. "Our mission at CAA has always been to empower our members with the best-in-class tools they need to thrive," said A.J Lovitt, CEO of Combined Agents of America. "Ascend's innovative approach to automation allows our agencies to pivot from administrative tasks to high-value client service and strategic growth." Driving the Future of Accounting Operations This partnership arrives as the insurance industry increasingly prioritizes digital transformation and the integration of AI-driven financial tools. "CAA represents a leader for independent agency networks," said Amelia Lee, Head of Partnerships at Ascend. "We are thrilled to be their exclusive accounting automation partner and help provide solutions that support the growth ambitions of CAA's member agencies." About Ascend Ascend is the comprehensive accounting automation platform for the insurance industry, providing technology that automates payments, collections, payables, and reconciliation for agencies, intermediaries and carriers. To learn more about how Ascend can transform your business, please visit www.useascend.com. About Combined Agents of America (CAA) Founded in 1997, Combined Agents of America, LLC is a leading insurance network of independent insurance agencies. Committed to the evolution of the independent agency system, CAA provides its members with the leverage, resources, and scale of a national organization while maintaining local agency independence. Media Contact: Mike Nguyen SOURCE Ascend

II Reporter
Nov 7th, 2025
Ascend Launches Cash Application Tool to Address Unapplied Cash Balances

Ascend launches Cash Application tool to address unapplied cash balances. New solution automates reconciliation to improve financial accuracy and compliance for insurance brokers. (Image source: Ascend Cash Application page.) Ascend (San Francisco) has launched Cash Application, a new component of its accounting automation platform designed to help insurance brokers reduce unapplied cash balances and maintain compliance with financial reporting standards. The solution automates accounts receivable reconciliation, enabling brokers to accelerate revenue recognition and streamline month-end processes. Cash Application tracks and categorizes client invoices, carrier commission statements, and return premiums, reducing reliance on manual workflows that often delay reconciliation and obscure financial performance. "A Top 20 broker facing compliance challenges with their unapplied cash balances partnered with Ascend to implement Cash Application," comments Andrew Wynn, Co-CEO, Ascend. "Since adopting the solution, they've cut their monthly balance of unapplied cash by more than half, and what previously took more than eight days to reconcile now takes just three." * Categorize all bank deposits in real time and assign them to the correct line items in agency management systems (AMS). * Automatically match and apply cash to statements and invoices by fetching relevant financial documents. * Improve revenue recognition and cash flow by reducing unapplied cash. * Support SOX 404 compliance through clear, audit-ready reporting. Cash Application joins Ascend's portfolio of financial automation tools, including its Direct Bill Reconciliation solution, and reflects the company's focus on increasing operational efficiency for brokers. "Our goal has always been to make financial operations as effortless and transparent as possible," adds Wynn. "With Cash Application, we're giving agencies the financial control and flexibility they've been missing."

PR Newswire
Apr 14th, 2025
Ascend Releases Ai-Powered Smart Inbox For Retail Agencies

Smart Inbox automates processing of documents for both agency bill and direct bill workflowsSAN FRANCISCO, April 14, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Ascend, the leading financial operations automation platform for the insurance industry, today announced the launch of Smart Inbox, an AI-powered email inbox that automatically reads, categorizes, and processes the full range of financial and policy documents insurance agencies encounter on a daily basis. Built for account managers handling invoicing or finance teams reconciling payables and commissions, Smart Inbox reduces clerical errors as well as time spent on processing documents and manually entering data.Key Features and Benefits:AscendCentralized Accounting and Billing Inbox: Agencies can forward any billing or accounting document—binders, quotes, invoices, or statements—into a single inbox. Smart Inbox serves as a unified hub for document intake across departments.Agencies can forward any billing or accounting document—binders, quotes, invoices, or statements—into a single inbox. Smart Inbox serves as a unified hub for document intake across departments. Faster Invoicing Workflows: Smart Inbox automatically extracts the necessary billing information from binders or quotes to create client invoices—reducing manual errors and allowing account managers to spend less time on invoice creation.Smart Inbox automatically extracts the necessary billing information from binders or quotes to create client invoices—reducing manual errors and allowing account managers to spend less time on invoice creation. Automated Direct Bill Commission Reconciliation: Smart Inbox analyzes commission statements, attributes them to the correct carrier, and automatically reconciles them with expected commissions in agency management systems—significantly increasing the accuracy and speed of month-end close."Smart Inbox has been extremely beneficial for my team to reduce manual data entry and clerical errors, by allowing us to use AI to make it even easier to process and invoice our clients," said Wade Millward, CEO of Rikor Insurance Consultancy.Smart Inbox is the latest addition to Ascend's suite of AI-powered automation tools—including AI-Invoicing and Direct Bill Automation