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InsurTech, is a term well known by people close to the insurance sector or entrepreneurship ecosystem. "Insurance Technologies” is the name given to entrepreneurial entities who are using InsurTech technology to provide an additional value-added benefit on the insurance value chain or compete with existing services.
While InsurTech investments attracted attention with increasing momentum especially in the last few years, and reached a record level in 2020 by continuing to grow.
In the article published by CB Insights with reference to Willis Towers Watson's report, the following chart shows the course of InsurTech investments. As we can see in the chart, despite the increase in investments in Health and Life Science, Property & Casualty maintains its prior progress in InsurTech. In the first quarter of 2020, the shock and uncertainty caused by COVID-19 seems to have been replaced by the perspective brought by the priorities of the new order in other quarters. This point of view confirms the importance of technology and innovation in the new era.
After the Katrina Storm in the U.S., COVID-19 is the biggest damage in insurance history
It is estimated that the total compensation paid to date has reached approximately 55 billion dollars. In addition to this cost, the losses in investment income of insurance and reinsurance companies reach $150B. It is also stated that the net income loss in the global sector has reached 25%.
Despite this ongoing negative situation, it can be predicted that the increase in InsurTech investments is due to the importance of online services, as well as some very large-scale agreements, and the squeezing profit margins accelerating the need for cost reduction, which ultimately makes the need for technology, new business models and innovation more visible.
Below, I would like to share the most interesting and invested InsurTech initiatives according to various sources. But first, I think that looking at the areas InsurTech initiatives generally focus on will help better understand the investment trend after COVID-19.
Now let’s explore the InsurTech stars of 2020.
Next Insurance
Next Insurance is an online insurance provider for small businesses located in Palo Alto, California. The company offers policies to many small businesses, from general contractors to personal trainers.
It received an investment of 250 million dollars in 2020. Investors CapitalG, FinTLV, Munich RE Group CapitalG were announced as partners. The company was valued over $2B in this round of investment. Founder and CTO Alon Huri explains their vision as "dramatically simplifying processes by offering 100% online, personalized and inexpensive policies."
Oscar Health, www.hioscar.com
Oscar is a technology-focused health insurance company founded in 2012 and is headquartered in New York City. The company focuses on the health insurance industry through telemedicine, health-oriented technological interfaces, and transparent claims pricing systems.
It received an investment of $225M in 2020 and then $140M in the last month of the year. Investors were announced as Alphabet, General Catalyst, Khosla Ventures, Lakestar, Thrive Capital, Baillie Gifford, Coatue. In 2018, the value of the company was reported as $3.2B.
Unqork, https://www.unqork.com/
The firm's value proposition for insurers summed up: “Deliver great new digital products without writing a single line of code. Unqork empowers insurers to quickly create corporate-ready solutions for all product groups of Life, Pension, Pension, Accident, P&C, Commerce fields.”
In 2020, Series C received an investment of $207M its round of investments. Investors were announced as BlackRock, Eldridge, Fin Venture Capital, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Schonfeld Strategic Advisors, Sunley House Capital Management.
Hippo, www.hippo.com
The firm describes itself: “We have brought housing insurance into the digital age and made it possible to purchase an online policy in less than five minutes. Hippo not only provides you an insurance policy, it also helps you protect your house, so you can avoid making a claim right from the start. We are the only company that offers discounted smart home devices to its customers, provides home care services with Hippo Home Care, and uses advanced technology to provide the most appropriate coverage every year.”
In 2020, Series E received an investment of $150M in its round of investment.
Pie Insurance pieinsurance.com
Pie redesigned the insurance experience from bid to demand. Small business owners can now get an offer and get back to business within three minutes.
One the partners of Greycroft, which is an investor to the firm, Ian Sigalow said: "Pie continues to show significant momentum even in the current economic environment. We are pleased to assist the company in its next stage of growth as we transform the SME insurance market."
It received an investment of $127M in 2020. Investors, Gallatin Point Capital, Greycroft, SVB Capital, Aspect Ventures, Elefund, Sirius International Insurance Group, Ltd. as announced.
Relay, www.relayplatform.com
Relay Platform Inc. is a SaaS platform that equips brokers, online insurers, and their capacity providers with the leading electronic reinsurance solution in both commodities and accident insurance and facultative reinsurance. Providing exceptional support for mid-market and large commercial businesses, Relay offers best-in-class instant API-based and email bidding capabilities alongside customer-earned offerings. Relay is a new generation reinsurance collaboration platform that helps insurers manage reinsurance better. Relay speeds up the reinsurance process, eliminates unnecessary effort, and alerts you to the latest opportunities and trends. Relay was created according to the best user experience in the reinsurance field.
Spot, www.getspot.com
Spot is an ambitious startup targeting those who live an active and adventurous lifestyle by opening a new distribution channel. Spot makes it possible to purchase short-term, month-to-month policies at an affordable price through a simple platform besides cooperating with many sports platforms. ”
Spot summarizes the scope of the policy as follows: “Almost everything. From your daily work to your once-in-a-lifetime experiences. From rock climbing to cutting your finger to chopping broccoli. Sorry, Spot does not cover medical conditions (such as illness), pre-existing conditions, or overuse injuries (wear and tear). We only cover accidental injuries that occur after your policy is active.”
Zesty AI, www.zesty.ai
Zesty benefits the power of artificial intelligence to transform their valuing methods regarding trillion-dollar property insurance industry risk assessment. It uses the latest advancements in computer vision and deep learning across more than 115 billion data points in residential and commercial properties to extract key building features to model the potential impact of both catastrophic and non-catastrophic events accurately. Insurance companies and reinsurers partner with Zesty to more accurately cover risk, provide customers with a smoother purchasing experience, and manage expertise more cost-effectively.
Flock, flockcover.com
Flock offers the world's most advanced real-time quantitative risk assessment of drone flight risk. Flock is a London-based, VC and Government-backed InsurTech initiative pioneering the use of big data for smart insurance pricing.
Flock has formed a global partnership with Allianz, the world's largest aviation insurer, to launch its first product, the Flock Cover: a pay-as-you-fly insurance and safety app for drone pilots.
Esusu, esususavings.org
Esusu is a VC-backed Fintech company that develops digital tools and services designed to help users increase their financial strength and build solid financial identities. The company specializes in consumer data on lease payments and peer-to-peer payments. Esusu uses this data as:
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