Techsurance - your weekly insurance technology readings🗞
May 17 - May 23
Hi everyone,
To start off this weekly digest, a really interesting quote and take on embedded insurance by Shefi Ben-Hutta in the Coverager’s latest weekend opinion. Do you share this view?
Embedded insurance has a rosy reputation because it offers low acquisition costs, the proper framing of insurance, and access to large markets that have adopted one sort of platform (e.g. a mobile banking app) or another (a ridesharing app or online food delivery app). But the airplane spoon can only contain so much and embedded insurance is mostly relevant for no-brainer purchases without any long-term implications such as purchase/refund protection, parametric weather protection, travel insurance, an alternative to a rent deposit, or product insurance.
I stick to the mantra that there two kinds of insurance products: (1) compulsory and (2) products that protect against major financial loss - but embedded insurance is often neither. And just like the airplane spoon, while these products aren't sought after on their own, there's a [good] chance they will end up in someone's cart.
💲 VC fund-raising and M&A news
Extend raises $260 million Series C led by Softbank Vision Fund 2 at a $1.6 billion valuation. Through its platform and APIs at the point-of-purchase, Extend enables merchants to sell extended warranty and protection plans. Extend sold over 300,000 protection plans in 2020, and is on track to sell more than three million protection plans in 2021 alone. Extend’s merchants list includes brands like iRobot, Harman/JBL, Peloton, RealTruck, Traeger Grills, and Balsam Hill, among others. It offers integrations with e-commerce platforms like Magento, BigCommerce, Shopify, and SalesForce Commerce 📰 Coverager
Bright Health, the Minneapolis-based health insurance company, just filed its S-1 to IPO this year, seeking to raise $100 million. Bright Health offers individual, family and Medicare Advantage plans across 14 US States, serving 623,000 consumers. Bright’s latest venture, NeueHealth, helps connect providers and payers with technology to enable value-based care. Bright Health has generated $1.2 billion in revenue during 2020 📰 Insurtech Insights
Wrisk, a London-based Insurtech, closed a £4.6 million Series A round led by QBN Capital. After several pivots, Wrisk offers car insurance in a B2B2C fashion (it dropped its D2C business last year), increasingly working with the automotive sector 📰 Coverager
An interesting interview from Getsafe’s CEO, Christian Wiens, in which he comments on the German’s Insurtech performance in Germany and the UK. Getsafe counts 175,000 customers to date, and is growing its premium 30% thanks to cross-selling. Christian Weins confirm’s the firm’s short-term commitment to Germany and the UK before expanding further in Europe, and on property insurance before extending to new business lines. Getsafe is reportedly raising €50-€75 million to become a full-stack insurer 📰 Crowdfund Insider
Here’s a cool chart by Astorya.vc on how German full-stack Insurtechs are doing in terms of premium:
🏠 Super, the US Insurtech which ambition is to reinvent the home warranty space, raises oversubcribed $50 million Series C led by Wells Fargo Strategic Capital. Super is a home care and repair service, which recently pivoted to insurance and pays to repair covered appliance and home system breakdowns. In addition, its concierge service manages the logistics for home service needs. Below is an illustration of the three subscription plans the startup currently offers. 📰 Coverager
🚗 Jerry a mobile-first car ownership app and car insurance comparison system, has raised more than $57 million in funding, including a new $28 million Series B round led by Goodwater Capital. Jerry uses AI and machine learning to compare car insurance rates. It has gained 1 million customers across the US 📰 Insurtech Insights
Boost, the New York-based B2B insurance plaform, raises $20 million Series B round led by RRE Ventures. Being another player in the embedded insurance space, Boost enables its partners to offer white-labeled digital insurance solutions to their customers. Boost powers dozens of digital distribution clients, including Hippo, Aon’s CoverWallet, Cowbell Cyber, and Wagmo 📰 Coverager
🚀 New products, partnerships, collaborations and more
Lovys, the French multi-product Insurtech, partners with Assurly to offer credit insurance in France. Assurly is an MGA that offers credit insurance in B2C and B2B2C modes, recently partnering with e-commerce platform Rakuten France. Lovys, which boasts 30,000 customers, will add a new credit insurance product co-created with Assurly to its panel of products (home, car, pet, smartphone) 📰 MindFintech (in French)
Metromile, the US pay-per-mile auto insurer, announced mixed Q1 results. The company added only 3,323 new policies since Q4 2020 while spending $8.5 million on marketing, sales, underwriting, and device costs. Direct earned premium in Q1 2021 was $25.8 million, a 4.2% increase from the prior-year period. The average annual premium slightly decreased due to lower miles driven. Metromile also announced that it would soon allow policyholders the option to pay for insurance and receive payment for eligible and approved insured claims in bitcoin 📰 Coverager
The same week, Metromile announced a new partnership with home Insurtech Hippo Insurance to offer multi-policy discounts. Customers will be able to save up to 15% on their auto and homeowners insurance policies when bundled 📰 Insurtech Insights
AXA Partners has entered a new deal with mobile phone and gadget insurance provider Insurance2go. This deal will see AXA Partners UK and Ireland underwrite Insurance2go’s gadget and mobile phone insurance policie 📰 Insurtech Insights
Home 🏡 insurance news
Luko just announced its Giveback program for 2020, giving back €102 000 to 4 associations/charities. As a reminder, Luko’s Giveback program works just like Lemonade’s, which distributed $1+ million in its 2020 Giveback 📰 Luko (in French)