European Insurtech scaling at pace

There’s a definite energy and momentum behind European Insurtech right now.

Great to see Tractable hit the $1bn valuation off the back of it $60m Series D.

They’ve seen a 600% sales uptick over the past 24 months – not bad considering most of our cars were sat on the driveway for a good chunk of that.

Keeping on the Asia front, here’s one to read: Unlocking the $10 Billion Opportunity in Insurance

It’s a fairly quick read but definitely worth it.

BCG and ZA Tech expect incumbent/digital company partnerships to create new opportunities worth $10bn+ in insurance premiums over the coming 5-10 years.

We’re currently tracking over 20k Asian startups in Sønr so if you are exploring options out there, do take a look. You won’t find market intelligence more accurate or comprehensive. True story.

Before we dive in, two more things:

1. Budweiser is getting into insurance. Brilliant. I never saw that one coming
2. More insurance folk jumping ship over to insurtechs

Okay, so maybe Abacai aren’t quite your usual ‘European insurtech’ but this shift of talent from incumbents into scaling startups is becoming very real.

Earlier this week I was on a panel with the very discerning Ruth Foxe Blader from Anthemis. She called out just the same and cited the importance for incumbents to take stock and put in place measures to retain exceptional talent.

Nothing like losing your key people to make innovation just that little bit tougher.

Enough chat.

Let’s start with the world of mobility which has seen plenty of action over the past couple of weeks.

The rise and consolidation of telematics

This week the UK saw the launch of Vitality’s new direct-to-consumer car insurance proposition.

It’s a proposition we helped develop (alright, let’s not take too much credit – it was a very small part we played!) a couple of years back. But great to see it come to fruition.

I reckon we’ll look back on this in a couple of years’ time and clock VitalityCar being a key catalyst in the mainstream adoption of telematics across the UK. Or at least that’s my prediction.

Staying with Europe and connected car platform Smartcar is now available across 29 countries in Europe.

It’s an interesting business and I’m keen to see how this European play works for them.

One more that caught my eye is an evolution to Root’s onboarding experience – RootReady.

To date Root has required new customers to take a test drive to determine eligibility for its UBI program. Now that’s all changed. Well, kind of.

Owners of a General Motors car (with a 2015 model or more recent) can now use their car’s driving data to see whether they qualify for cover.

The app informs drivers with eligible vehicles that they can skip the test drive and asks if they want to proceed with RootReady. Simple stuff but it’s all about reducing the friction.

More partnership activity and what SøNws would be complete without mentioning Wakam?

Continuing their focus on open innovation (50 new partnerships since the beginning of the year), this time they’ve paired up with L’olivier Assurance, of Admiral Group.

The partnership is set to launch insurance for New Individual Electric Vehicles (NVEI – electric scooters, hoverboards, gyro wheels etc). Consumers can get a quote within five minutes, and choose from 3 levels of protection, starting from €3.60 a month.

They’ve also partnered with European insurtech Setoo to launch a parametric ferry delay insurance, which has been directly embedded via API into LIKNOSS, the leading ferry reservation service.

The solution will initially be available in Greece, although it is set to expand across Europe.

Finally, the motor and drone insurers Flock have partnered with Aioi Nissay Dowa Europe.

According to a statement, the two firms have worked together for the past six months to develop two connected motor fleet insurance products, which are now available to self-drive hire, own goods, courier, and tradesperson fleets across the UK.

From cars to homes

Who would have thought there was so much going on in the mobility space?

Bringing things a little closer to traditional auto insurance world and UK insurtech Honcho has made its first major partnership with digital vehicle sales solution provider SilverBullet.

Car buyers using the SilverBullet-powered platform are now able to sort out their car insurance through Honcho’s value comparison marketplace.

In the US, Branch Insurance – a business I’m hearing more and more good things about – has raised $50m Series B funding.

The startup has achieved a 435% growth in its partner channel, 660% growth in active policies, and a 734% increase in active premium less than one year after its $24m Series A.

Another car/home announcement that caught my eye was Israel’s weSure which is expanding to the US, having received its New Jersey license.

The company offers auto and property insurance, and plans to apply for other state licenses. weSure’s revenue in Q1 grew 113% YoY to $20m.

What else, what else.

Farmers Insurance has partnered with Zesty.ai.

Using Z-Fire, their risk scoring model that leverages high-resolution imagery, building and weather data, and AI, the plan is to expand Farmers’ coverage for residences located in certain wildfire-risk areas.

And contents European insurtech Urban Jungle has raised €9m to scale operations after its customer base doubled to around 40,000 over the course of the pandemic.

The UK insurtech, which targets millennials and Gen Z, tailors its insurance to those who rent or are in shared housing.

And finally, what does golfer Rory McIlroy and the Founder of eBay have in common?

The European home insurtech has announced new funding (including from our friend Rory), bringing the total of its latest round of funding to $69.2m.

Life, pensions, and investments

Let’s start with Anorak, the world’s first fully automated life insurance advice platform.

David Vanek and team have raised £5m with the ambition to ‘become the most innovative life insurance technology company in Europe’.

The funding is set to accelerate Anorak’s expansion of its distribution and partners network. It already provides services to users from Starling Bank, Clearscore, Snoop and Canopy, and the European insurtech plans to work with more distributions and brands that don’t traditionally sell insurance products.

In the US, Haven Life is tapping into the younger crowd through a partnership with college savings app UNest. Offering term life insurance quotes they throw in a pretty ungenerous $5 reward into the savings account. I guess they know better than I do on what will motivate. Either way, a very smart move by Haven.

The plan is to provide an app-based Auto Enrolment pension that also offers the flexibility of a personal pension, meaning that it is transportable between employers and for periods of self-employment. Sounds like a very sensible and much needed play.

Early days but one to keep an eye on for sure.

A quick look into investments and Vitality has launched a new EnVIRO fund range.

This is a ready-made investment solution that integrates environmental, social and governance considerations (ESG), making it easier for advisers to offer their clients a way to invest in a more sustainable future.

And finally, yesterday I think, I caught the news that JP Morgan had bought robo-adviser Nutmeg.

In the press release it said Nutmeg will ‘complement’ the company’s new digital bank, which is planned to launch in the UK later this year under the JPMorgan Chase brand. Interesting times.

A tour of health innovation like no other

Let’s jump to what’s been going on in health.

First of all, a little market manipulation. Remember the headlines on AMC and GameStop stock early in 2021?

Well now the same story is hitting insurance and Clover Health, which is the latest target for Reddit forums who aim to punish short-sellers by driving up stock.

Keeping with the markets, less than a year after its $500m Series E round, Bright Health is joining Oscar and Clover Health with an IPO. In its SEC filing, it revealed over $1.2bn in revenue in 2020, across 99 markets and 14 states.

For my own sanity and a bit of interesting reading, let’s call out some stuff you probably won’t be picking up elsewhere.

First of all, Norbert Health.

With all the talk of wearables tracking vital signs, these guys are pitching the exact opposite.

They’re creating tech which is able to detect and measure a range of signals from up to 6ft away. Having just secured a $5m raise for their entirely contactless solution their mission is to make vital signs scanning and monitoring fast, efficient, easy, and ubiquitous.

Have good weekends all.

Matt

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