Guidewire Software Inc., commonly just Guidewire, is a privately-held American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 corporation based in San Mateo, California

San Mateo, California

San Mateo is a city in San Mateo County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area. With a population of approximately 100,000 , it is one of the larger suburbs on the San Francisco Peninsula, located between Burlingame to the north, Foster City to the east, Belmont to the south,...

. It offers core backend systems for property and casualty insurance carriers in the U.S. and worldwide.

Guidewire is also recognized as part of a small group of companies in Silicon Valley

Silicon Valley

Silicon Valley is a term which refers to the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California in the United States. The region is home to many of the world's largest technology corporations...

 ripe for an IPO

Initial public offering

An initial public offering or stock market launch, is the first sale of stock by a private company to the public. It can be used by either small or large companies to raise expansion capital and become publicly traded enterprises...

 in the next couple of years, along with Facebook

Facebook

Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...

 and LinkedIn

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a business-related social networking site. Founded in December 2002 and launched in May 2003, it is mainly used for professional networking. , LinkedIn reports more than 120 million registered users in more than 200 countries and territories. The site is available in English, French,...

. In September 2011, Guidewire filed with the SEC to raise up to $100 million in an initial public offering.

Guidewire develops the Gosu programming language

Gosu (programming language)

Gosu is a general-purpose Java Virtual Machine-based programming language released under the Apache License 2.0. This general-purpose programming language is used in some open-source software projects, including the web application framework and the build-tool , as well as in Guidewire Software...

, which it released as open source in 2010.

Business model

The company was established in 2001. Its three main software products are ClaimCenter, PolicyCenter, and BillingCenter, each servicing a major component of a P&C insurance carrier.

Software

In 2010, Guidewire unveiled its latest version of BillingCenter, Guidewire BillingCenter 3.0. It offers flexible billing options including direct, agency, account current, group, list, mortgages, and collection agency billing.

Competitors

Competition for Guidewire comes mostly from the insurance carriers themselves, who have historically built their own systems internally, or with the help of large consulting companies.