Techsurance - your weekly insurance tech readings
March 15-21
Hello folks,
Here are some of my weekly Insurance and Insurtech readings this week.
First, some industry and thought leadership readings:
Great read from astorya.vc (in French!) on Europe's growing Insurtech scene. Three lessons to take away from the article: (1) The European ecosystem has been maturing in the last two years with less new comers, but there is still room for new players to enter, (2) most of the funding went into P&C Insurtechs digitizing the distribution of home and car insurance, and (3) B2B carrier softwares and professional insurance are also well represented among Insurtechs. Full article here.
A cool read from Crunchbase on the growing VC dollars pouring into Insurtechs, after a year marked by the first Western Insurtech IPOs (Lemonade, Root Insurance). Main takeaway is that recently IPOed Insurtechs have exited fast (cool summary table below), riding the wave of SPACs and strong public market reception for tech offerings. Now that a first wave of Insurtechs dealing with major product categories (home, auto) have gone or are about to go public, the time is ripe for upstarts that are focusing on nich categories (cyber, gig workers) that lack digitization. Full article here.
With the rise of digital platforms and ecosystems, embedded insurance, the APIsation of insurance, and Open Insurance at large are bound to become priorities for traditional carriers. I missed this Open Insurance Monitor from INNOPAY, which went out in January, but it's really worth a read. It looks at how traditional carriers are currently positioned in terms of API catalogue, documentation and developer experience/usability. INNOPAY does not identify any "master of openness" at this stage, but I believe Chinese insurer Ping An is a real pioneer in openness in Asia. Full article here.
Cool benchmark from LocalGlobe, a UK-based VC fund with a portfolio of 10 Insurtech investments. It compares publicly traded Insurtechs, their performance in terms of gross written premium, loss ratio, LTV/CAC ratio, and draws insights from their public debuts. While Lemonade remains the market's darling, and given current multiples, it looks as though the markets are buying the growth story - so far. Here's a quick look at a few publicly traded US Insurtechs and their stockmarket performance. Full article here.
Another cool read from Oursky Post on Embedded Insurance and the necessity for traditional carriers to adopt an API-first, microservices-based and mobile-ready approach to improving customer experience. API-first, micro-services-based, mobile-ready infrastructure. A good playbook to make embedded insurance a reality. Full article here.
Second, some exciting partnership news:
US digital commercial insurer Next Insurance has partnered with Amazon Business to provide eligible members with access to customized small business insurance. Business Prime members can now obtain a quote from Next Insurance and purchase General Liability, Professional Liability, Workers' Compensation, Commercial Auto, and Tools and Equipment insurance coverage. Full article here.
Wriskhas partnered with the RAC to launch Pay by Mile, a subscription-based car insurance product allowing people to only pay for the miles they drive. Full article here.
AXA Partners, AXA's global B2B2C unit dedicated to delivering solutions in assistance services, travel insurance and credit protection & welfare, and Ancileo, the insurance-as-a-service startup, renew strategic partnership to foster innovation in the travel industry. A great example of a traditional insurer partnering with a digital player to offer embedded and flexible insurance solutions. Full article here.
Some smart home, homeowners and renters insurance news that are worth sharing this week:
Swedish home neoinsurer Hedvig just announced that it would move from MGA to become a full-stack carrier, after obtaining its EU insurance carrier licence. Hedvig currently insures 50,000 people in Sweden and Norway, and takes 8% of all new policies in its core market. In addition to expanding beyond the Nordics, SCOR-backed Hedvig plans to leverage its carrier licence to introduce product innovations. To be continued. Full article here.
Australian Insurtech CoverHero, which already provides insurance coverage to part-time and full-time gig workers, launches Lucci, an embedded home insurance product which uses 3D aerial imaging of properties to immediately provide tailored, real-time policies. Not only does it provide accurate and data-driven underwriting, but every Lucci policy will also offset at least 11 tonnes of carbon emissions. Full article here.
Some news from Hippo Insurance, the US-based homeowners insurance provider, which beyond its upcoming SPAC-led public debut, announced it would scale and automate its claims services with two leading partners, Five Sigma and Claimatic (full article here). It also new released its newest 2021 Smart Home Trends. Some takeaways: the number of smart homes in the US increased 10% in 2020 to total 52.2 million. Furthermore, Hippo highlights 7 smart home trends for 2021: (1) more home integration and interoperability, (2) AI everywhere to bring more convenience, (3) the rise of smart devices for home office automation, (4) healthier homes through tech and sensors, (5) more high-tech security to protect homes, (6) mesh WIFI to boost high-speed connections, and (7) total customization for your smart home. Full article here.
And last but not least, the usual (and numerous) fund-raising news. Again, this week's news show how hot the Insurtech space has been since the beginning of the year, with a nice funding streak from cyber Insurtechs in the last few weeks:
Cyber insurance startup Coalition raises a $175 million Series D round, led by Index Ventures and participation from General Atlantic, at a $1.75 billion valuation. It brings Coalition's total funding to $315 million. Coalition currently serves over 42,000 customers, providing cybersecurity tools alongside cyber insurance coverage. This investment follows two large funding rounds from cyber Insurtechs, with Corvus Insurance closing a $100 million Series C last week and Cowbell Cyber closing a $20 million Series A round. It also echos this week's massive $180 million Series E round secured by cyber risk scoring scaleup SecurityScorecard, which counts AXA Venture Partner among its investors and boasts many insurance clients. More information on Coalition's latest funding here.
Softbank-backed Indian insurance aggregator PolicyBazaar has raised $75 million in fresh funding led by US fund Falcon Edge Capital, with an ambition to expand towards the UAE and Middle East. PolicyBazaar has raised about $630 million to date. PolicyBazaar reports to sell 1 million policies a month, and commands 90% of share in the (still tiny) online insurance distribution market in India. Full article here.
US texting platform Hi Marley closes a $25 million Series B round. Hi Marley provides an AI-enabled texting platform for the insurance industry. Prior to the round, Hi Marley was valued at $50 million. Full article here.
As discussed last week, Wefox recently hired Goldman Sachs to close out its Series C. According to Sifted, Wefox is looking to raise an additional $150 million in funding, Full article here.
Traditional carriers Allianz and AXA took part in Stripe's latest $600 millionfunding round, reaching a whopping $95 billion valuation. Stripe does not offer insurance for now, but it has partnered with Layr to offer Stripe's US customers cyber liability and data breach insurance, without filling out an application or waiting on underwriting. Full article here.
Mumbai-based Turtlemint raised a fresh $46 million Series D round led by Singapore-based Jungle Ventures, putting its total amount raised to $69 million. Turtlemint offers offers car, bike, health and life insurance from over 30 providers, through its network of of over 100,000 insurance advisers that cater to 1.5 million customers. Full article here.
And that's it for this week!