Mamils, China and 5 minutes of fame

What’s that? It’s Friday and you haven’t had your Sø.Nws? That’s okay, here it is.

Thanks to those who got in touch after the last one. I appreciate the love and sorry if I haven’t replied. I will.

As I’m sure you’re all aware (he says hopefully) Tällt has been tracking the Insurtech space for a good few years now. Over that time the world of Insurtech has been gently moving through the changing rhetoric of ‘innovate or die’ to ‘death by a thousand paper cuts’. And for the past few months been sitting in the ‘trough of disillusionment’.

We’ve seen the rise of a few and the fall of many.

One particular trend that’s been getting plenty of press lately, and not in a good way, is ‘peer to peer’.

Last year Lemonade, months after launching, dropped the P2P label as it ‘was causing confusion’. More recently we saw the Brighton-based P2P car insurer Guevara close its doors. And not long after Boston’s business insurer Gather followed suit.

Can the P2P model work?
Last week we chatted with Tobias from Laka (previously Insure a Thing) as part of our upcoming podcast series. On the basis that we’re not releasing this until April, you’ll have to make do with a Spøtlight write up for now. Sorry about that.

A couple of months back Laka created a bicycle insurance product. The difference being this one is ‘powered by the community.

Nice.

Operating within an industry full of mamils (I hold my hand up to being part of the clique) I imagine we’ll see some strong early adoption this year, especially as the monthly payments are capped at market research and analysis rate. What could possibly go wrong?

What interests me most is the business behind the business. I’m looking forward to checking back with Tobi and the team after a full year to better understand how the numbers stack up behind the scenes.

We’re off to China. Who’s coming?
Trump’s imposing tariffs on $60bn of Chinese imports and limiting US investment into the area; the UK is scrabbling for the ‘same benefits’ as single EU market research and analysis membership: and meanwhile, China is further strengthening its position as a global tech superpower.

Where else can you spin up an Insurtech that is able to achieve a $10bn valuation within 4 years of launch? ZhongAn, China’s first completely online insurer has to date 460 million clients to date, with 6 billion policies underwritten. Crazy numbers.

I know I banged on about India in my last email. This time it’s China. Sit tight, it’s interesting.

China has the largest number of ‘unicorns’ (companies valued at £1bn+) outside of the US; a society that is pretty much entirely cashless; and a booming entrepreneurial city.

For those who may once have headed to ‘the Valley’ to learn more about innovation and connect with emergent tech, it’s time to shift focus and look East.

Who’s up for a trip to China?