We started Tugboat because we'd seen the same thing play out thousands of times: disaster strikes, a family files a claim, trusts the process, and walks away with a fraction of what they were owed. They didn't do anything wrong. But because they didn't know what to push back on, and nobody was there to help them, they end up with far less than they're owed.
Most people picture a claim as a disagreement over what the policy says. It usually isn't. The adjuster on the other side often hasn't read the policy either. They're working from internal guidelines designed to control payouts. The homeowner has the actual contract and no playbook for how it's being used against them. The real imbalance isn't who knows the policy, it's who has a system. That's not a fair fight, and it's why we built our company to help change the tides.
Today we're announcing $3M in seed funding, led by Resilience VC with participation from South Dakota First, gener8tor, Sure Ventures, Acumen, 701 Fund, and other strategic investors.
Who we are
Cameron Mooney and Aaron Mooney founded Tugboat after years of working as insurance adjusters, resolving thousands of property claims across dozens of carriers. They've seen the process from every angle (adjusting, litigation support, policy interpretation, and recovery management), which means they know exactly where it breaks and why.
Cameron leads growth and strategy, drawing on his background in complex commercial and residential losses to guide how Tugboat reaches the people who need it most. Aaron leads product and operations, translating years of field experience into tools that make the claims process less opaque and more navigable for everyday homeowners.
That depth of experience is what separates Tugboat from tools built by people who studied the problem. Cameron and Aaron lived it, across thousands of real claims, before they built anything.
What we're focused on
With this round, we're building deeper connections to the systems where property owners already work, expanding partnerships with multifamily owners, lenders, and restoration networks, and keeping our free disaster-response program running during active events for anyone who needs it, member or not.
Why now
The average time between billion-dollar disasters has dropped from 82 days in the 1980s to 19 days over the last decade. Carriers are pulling out of high-risk markets. The gap between what homeowners pay and what they actually recover keeps growing.
We think that's wrong, and we think it's fixable.
Across 30 states, Tugboat members have recovered more than $15 million above what they were able to get on their own. After the 2025 California wildfires alone, members recovered an average of $54,000 more per claim. While the numbers matter to us, what matters more is the family that got to rebuild.
What our investors are saying
"Tugboat creates massive value for its users, supporting them through a moment of extreme vulnerability as they struggle to navigate an extremely complex insurance claims process that is often incentivized to delay or deny payments," said Tahira Dosani, General Partner and Co-Founder, Resilience VC. "We see a huge opportunity for Tugboat with their market expanding rapidly as climate-related disaster events increase and insurance coverage narrows. Moreover, the founding team has deep insurance expertise and is building a compounding data moat that uniquely positions them to solve this challenge."
Insurance was supposed to catch you. For too many people it hasn't, and they found out at the worst possible moment. That's what we're here to fix.