Who we insure
Hardware & Deep Tech
For companies that design and build physical products: sensors, actuators, batteries, lidar, lab instruments, industrial machines and the prototypes that come before them. We place coverage that reaches a product before it is commercial.
What coverage you need, and why
A hardware company needs general liability with products and completed operations included, because the claim that matters most arrives after the product leaves your hands. It needs property coverage for the lab and the inventory, equipment coverage for the units in transit and at customer sites, tech E&O when the product carries firmware or software a customer relies on, and workers' compensation once anyone is on payroll. Cyber and directors and officers coverage follow the first enterprise contract and the first priced round.
The hard part is timing. Generic forms tend to exclude products that are not yet commercial, and a prototype at a trade show or a demo unit at a customer's plant is exactly the product a startup has. The placement has to name those units and that stage.
Why a generic policy misreads a deep-tech company
A physical product can injure the person using it, damage the plant it is installed in, or fail in a way that costs the customer money. A general liability application has no place for a product that is still being iterated, so a generic insurer either prices it as a finished consumer good or declines it as research.
Exclusions do the rest. Pre-commercial and research-and-development exclusions remove the prototype; government-use and export-control exclusions remove the defense customer; and a firmware defect can fall between the general liability form, which wants physical harm, and the tech E&O form, which wants a technology service.
We present the product at its real stage, to insurers who write hardware, and read every exclusion for the unit you are about to ship.
What customers, landlords and manufacturers require
The first enterprise purchase order carries an insurance exhibit that asks for general liability, usually $1M per occurrence and $2M aggregate, with products and completed operations at the same limits and the customer named as additional insured. Industrial customers add a $5M umbrella. Contract manufacturers write insurance clauses both ways: they want to see your general liability, and their own policy is what responds when the defect is theirs.
A lab lease asks for general liability and property coverage for the improvements before you sign. Trade shows and demo events ask for a certificate naming the venue. Distributors and resellers ask for vendor's coverage, which is an endorsement to your general liability policy.
Shipping is its own exposure. A unit on a truck to a customer is usually outside the property policy, and the carrier's liability for a lost crate is a fraction of its value. Equipment coverage, written as inland marine, is the line that follows the unit out the door.
What it costs
We don't publish a number. Premiums come back from the carriers' underwriters for your operation, and any figure we printed here would be a guess dressed as a fact.
The drivers are concrete. Underwriters read what the product does, who uses it, whether it stores energy or emits a laser, how many units are in the field, what the recall plan looks like and what the sales contracts say. A products submission that answers those questions is what turns a research-stage decline into a quote.
What to watch for in the wording
Look for the products and completed operations aggregate on the declarations page and check it is not zero. Then read the exclusions for anything that names prototypes, research and development, testing, or products not yet released for sale. That exclusion is the one that empties a hardware startup's policy, and it is negotiable when the submission describes the stage properly.
Look for a government-use or export-control exclusion if any customer is a defense agency or a prime. These remove claims arising from products supplied to the government, and they appear on generic forms without anyone asking. Look for a recall exclusion, which is standard, and decide whether a separate recall policy is worth it for your unit count.
Standard-form generative AI exclusions exist for the products and completed operations coverage part as well as the general liability part (the AI exclusions tracker lists both, with sources). If your product carries a model, the form has to be read for that endorsement too.
The lines that anchor the program
Click through the lines a company like yours usually carries, and what each one answers.
1 of 5
General Liability
Someone outside your company gets hurt or their property gets damaged. This pays the harm and the legal bill.
Comes up: Your first lease, customer contract, or on-site visit.
What it coversHow to buy it
Describe the product, its stage, its customers and the contracts in front of you, in plain English. The application builds a products submission that names the prototype and the demo unit, and a licensed broker takes it to insurers who write hardware.
We read the forms before anything binds, show you what each policy responds to at your stage, and issue certificates to the purchase order's exact wording once it does. As units ship, the schedule and the limits move with them.
Common questions
Does general liability cover a prototype we are demoing at a trade show?
It can, if the form does not exclude products not yet released for sale and the venue is named on the certificate. That exclusion is the one to read before the show, subject to the carrier's wording.
Does insurance cover a prototype or a demo unit against damage?
Damage to your own unit is an equipment question. Equipment coverage written as inland marine follows the unit off premises and in transit, and the demo unit needs to be on the schedule or under a blanket limit.
Is our hardware covered while it ships to a customer?
Usually not by the property policy, and the freight carrier's own liability is small. Inland marine with in-transit coverage is the line that answers a crate lost or dropped on the way.
Our contract manufacturer wants a certificate. Whose policy responds to a defect?
Yours responds to a claim against you; theirs responds to a claim against them. The supply agreement decides who indemnifies whom, and the certificate each side asks for is meant to prove the indemnity is backed by a policy.
We sell a sensor with firmware. Is that general liability or tech E&O?
Both, depending on the harm. Physical injury or damage caused by the unit is general liability. A customer's financial loss because the firmware reported the wrong reading is tech E&O, and the two forms need to be read together so nothing falls between them.
A customer asked for $2M general liability and a $5M umbrella. Is that normal?
For an industrial customer, yes. The primary policy usually stops at $1M per occurrence and the umbrella supplies the rest. It is negotiable, and we tell you which parts to push back on before you sign.
We have a defense customer. Does that change the policy?
It can, because generic forms may carry a government-use or export-control exclusion. We read for both and place with a carrier whose form does not remove your largest customer.
Guides
Terms
See also
Sources
- 1. Risklytics, AI exclusions tracker, 2026-09-12.
This page describes coverage in general terms. It is not an offer of insurance, and carrier appetite, policy wording, licensing, and availability govern every quote and every claim. Last revised 2026-09-12.