A16z Speedrun-Backed OpenSesame Opens New Doors with Rebrand to General Magic
•February 3, 2026
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Companies Mentioned
Why It Matters
By automating insurance communications, General Magic improves customer experience and cuts operational costs, addressing the growing demand for text‑based service among younger policyholders.
Key Takeaways
- •Rebranded to General Magic, focusing on insurance texting agents
- •Claims process automation cuts call volume by 30%
- •A16z Speedrun accelerator provides $1M equity funding
- •Targeting Gen Z prefers text over phone calls
- •Toronto team plans expansion into New York market
Pulse Analysis
The insurance sector is confronting a generational shift as Millennials and Gen Z increasingly favor instant, text‑based interactions over traditional phone calls. Agentic AI—software that can act autonomously on behalf of users—offers a way to meet this demand, turning routine claim filings into conversational experiences. By embedding large‑language‑model capabilities into messaging platforms, insurers can provide real‑time, personalized guidance without the latency of human agents, thereby reducing friction and boosting satisfaction among digitally native policyholders.
General Magic’s solution builds on its earlier OpenSesame technology, delivering a dynamic texting agent that guides customers through claim submission, coverage queries, and status updates. Early metrics suggest a 30% drop in inbound call volume and a monthly savings of more than 250 labor hours, translating into tangible cost reductions for insurers. The platform also equips managers with intent analytics, enabling data‑driven refinements to outreach strategies. Compared with legacy claim‑management systems, this approach offers faster resolution times, lower operational overhead, and a more engaging customer journey—key differentiators in a competitive insurance market.
The rebrand and product focus are bolstered by a16z’s Speedrun accelerator, which supplied $1 million in equity and extensive AI‑tool credits. This backing underscores a broader trend of venture capital gravitating toward Canadian AI startups that can scale globally. By maintaining its Toronto base while courting clients in New York, General Magic exemplifies the cross‑border growth model enabled by modern accelerator programs. As insurers continue to digitize, the company’s agentic AI platform positions it to capture a sizable share of the emerging market for automated, text‑first customer engagement.
A16z speedrun-backed OpenSesame opens new doors with rebrand to General Magic
Since returning from Andreessen Horowitz’s accelerator program last summer, the founders of Toronto-based OpenSesame have found a new niche and a new identity.
“What we’ve been focusing on is customer engagement, where we think insurance is pretty broken, especially for Gen Z.”
Jai Mansukhani,
General Magic
Co-founders Jai Mansukhani and Anthony Azrak announced Tuesday that they have rebranded their agentic AI startup to General Magic, as part of a newfound focus on building agents for insurance companies to text with their clients.
The new name, General Magic, is a nod to the Apple spinoff company of the same name that was founded in 1989 and considered to have laid the groundwork for technologies such as multimedia email, touch screens, and the modern iPhone.
“It matches our ambitions of making it so that everyday moments become magical, not just for technical people, but for the vast majority of the population,” Azrak told BetaKit in an interview.
The startup began with a simple mission: bringing agentic AI workflows to industries that were using clunky legacy-management software. Then, the team says it landed a large insurer (whose identity they could not reveal due to a non-disclosure agreement) as a client, just as Mansukhani was dealing with a household water leak and a frustrating claim process.
“What we’ve been focusing on is customer engagement, where we think insurance is pretty broken, especially for Gen Z,” Mansukhani said. Some surveys have shown that people aged 18-34 are less likely to pick up the phone than other generations and prefer a text to a phone call—a trend that General Magic says it can help companies address.
Building on the company’s previous work in agentic workflows, General Magic says its technology allows insurance companies to offer a texting agent that interacts dynamically with customers as they file insurance claims and ask about their coverage.
On the company’s end, managers can track customer intent and outcomes from every text conversation. The value proposition is better customer engagement; for example a customer can get an instant, personalized response by sending a quick text instead of waiting to be connected to a customer service line. General Magic claims its tech can reduce call volumes by 30 percent and cut more than 250 hours monthly.
RELATED: a16z says OpenSesame to Canadian agentic AI startup for its speedrun accelerator
Mansukhani and Azrak went through the three-month a16z speedrun accelerator last summer. The program offers $1 million USD ($1.36 million CAD) in equity, access to millions of dollars in credits for software and AI tools, and hands-on mentorship and networking with one of the world’s most prominent venture firms.
The accelerator is newer to the game than Y Combinator, which made headlines last week when it quietly changed its rules to remove Canada from its list of investable sites. For its part, a16z speedrun marketing lead Ryan Rigney told BetaKit that the program doesn’t force teams to redomicile in the US—Canadian startups Pluvo and Syncere AI are part of its latest cohort.
General Magic is now based in Toronto. The six-person team is planning on landing more enterprise insurance customers, which it’s been courting through dinners and monthly events in Toronto and New York City.
Disclosure: Aaron Anandji, General Magic’s head of growth, is an occasional freelance writer for BetaKit.
Feature image courtesy General Magic.
The post A16z speedrun-backed OpenSesame opens new doors with rebrand to General Magic first appeared on BetaKit.
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