The 2020 Insurtech 100

“I’m disappointed that you have chosen not to include XXX in your list.”
“I couldn’t fathom how XXX wasn’t numbered XX…”

Ah, it must be that time of the year. The time we launch the Insurtech 100 and somehow disappointed a world who didn’t quite make it!

If you haven’t caught insurtech 100 yet, download it here.

This year’s Insurtech 2020.
As you’d expect there are a number of familiar faces but also 34 new entrants.

There’s a strong US and European representation, and interestingly in the Top 10 there are 3 from Asia – WeSure and ZhongAn from China, and Acko from India.

This year #1 was Lemonade, which on the surface seems a safe choice, but when you dig a little deeper, they have been smashing it.

[It’s probably worth saying ‘we’ don’t choose the 100. It’s Sønr’s propensity modelling tech (Sønr Index) that powers the selection and ranking.]

On Monday I caught up with Daniel Schreiber the CEO of Lemonade and Swifty, the Content Director of Insurance Post. If you’ve got 30 minutes, it’s definitely worth a listen/watch.

Over the past three and half years, Lemonade has brought its loss ratio (starting out at 300+%) to 72% without a single quarter reverse in trend. The standout for me is doing this whilst experiencing 450% compounded annual growth.

Who says you can’t do both at the same time?

The interview covers a load of ground – from insurance companies having lost dominion of data, the value of a digital substrate, and a glimpse into what’s next for Lemonade, including chat around IPOs and continued global expansion.

Back to the 100.

Unsurprisingly by now, the majority of the index is made up of pretty established tech businesses. The average total investment per Insurtech is well over $100m.

What’s great to see is a couple of particularly exciting, young, early-stage companies that have snuck into the tail-end of the listing. These will have over-indexed either on the quality of their teams or the market opportunity ahead of them, or both.

As for the sectors represented, there’s strong innovation across the board and a definite increase in the number of ‘generalist’ tech enablers making the Top 100.

Have a read, and trial Sønr for a little more in-depth analysis or give me a shout and I’ll happily chat through some of the broader trends and insights we’re seeing and how these might map to your business.

And now time for some market news. Having rambled about the Insurtech 100, I’m going keep this fairly light.

Innovation through partnerships
A few about insurtech 100 that caught my eye this week.

Trōv, the on-demand insurtech, is stepping into LatAm through a partnership with Seguros Sura Brazil, one of Latin America’s largest P&C insurers. It’ll be the first on-demand insurance application in Brazil, which will be super interesting to keep a track of.

In the US, Marsh has launched Marsh deliveryPRO for delivery drivers, created in collaboration with AXA XL and Arity (a startup founded by Allstate). The usage-based, priced-by-the-mile cover means the businesses only have to pay for what they need, and aims to help US businesses as they see an increased demand for delivery services.

Finally, Munich Re Specialty Insurance has partnered with Duck Creek Technologies to modernise its technology infrastructure with a digital-first, cloud-native offering. A full-suite solution, including policy, billing, and claims, was implemented in 90 days.

I know it’s only 3 examples but there’s so much in this.

Trōv/Sura – the value of tracking global innovation; not just market trends but identifying specific opportunities to innovate your business

Arity/Allstate – validation that with the right operational design, understanding of customer pains and knowledge of what is possible, giant insurers can successfully innovate and grow new markets

Munich Re/Duck Creek – right now, as I’m sure we’re all reading time and time again, accelerating digital transformation is key. Working with third parties to achieve this makes absolute sense (albeit there is a cost to doing this – read our latest report on this for more)

The money keeps a coming
Before I dive in, one on the M&A front – did you see Hippo has acquired Spinnaker Insurance? The two have been partners since 2017, but the new relationship means Hippo can now expand the geographical reach of its policies.

We hear time and time again of startup acquisitions failing because they are suffocated by the orthodoxies of corporate process and culture. Let’s see how it works the other way around!

There seems very little abating on the investment front. A few that align particularly well to the current state of the world we find ourselves in –

Mindstrong, the mental health platform, has raised $100m in funding. Interestingly it also has a new CEO in former Uber exec Daniel Graf. The big funding round comes off the back of another major raise last week from telehealth giant Amwell, which brought in $194m from Allianz X and Takeda.

One to skew the data for the quarter is self-drive startup, Argo AI, which has announced it has finalised a massive $2.6bn investment from VW Group, bringing the total company valuation to c$7.2bn. Self-driving tech is an expensive game, that’s for sure.

Further to my comment about Trōv/Sura partnership and the value in knowing and connecting to the innovation taking place around the world, I thought I’d show a snapshot of what’s been going on in Asia this past week.

A couple of pre-Series A raises for Riskcovry in Mumbai and GramCover in Delhi, and a Series A for PolicyStreet in Malaysia.

Stepping up in $$ and Singapore-based online comparison portal GoBear raised $17m from Aegon and others. Back to India and it sounds like Acko (#8 in this year’s Insurtech 100 2020) is in the final stages of securing a $60-$70m round which includes Munich Re.

And in the world of seriously big money, Indonesia-based Go-Jek has received undisclosed additional funding for their ongoing $1.2bn Series F round, with Facebook and PayPal joining other high profile names such as Google and Tencent as investors.

Back to the Lemonade conversation, in particular insurance companies losing the dominion of data, it’s worth mentioning (for those who aren’t doing this already) the innovation and investment activity from the tech giants is now a staple part of the competitor intel our clients are tracking in Sønr.

Welcome to SøNws (which I appreciate should probably have come a little earlier!)
A big hello to the mountain of new SøNws subscribers that have joined over the past week or so. Thought I’d share a few reports that we’ve published and shared over the past few weeks, as you won’t have seen them and there might be something useful in there for you.

Accelerating digital in response to Covid-19
Partnering to accelerate transformation
The future of telehealth

SøNws is something I write every fortnight and do shout if there’s ever anything you’d like more information on or to chat through. I’m always happy to connect.

The new Sønr website
If you haven’t checked the new Sønr website, please do so. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

And if you are working in or around the world of transformation and innovation, do take us up on a 14-day free Sønr trial. Better still, get a bunch of colleagues to sign up too and test some of the collaboration tools.

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Finally, as part of our continued interest in how business is responding to the recent pandemic, it was great to see a local insurtech being on the receiving end of Innovate UK’s funding.

We caught up with Rob Faulkner of Software Solved to learn more about how the funding enables them to fast-track the development of SurveyorTech Connect.

Right, that is all. The sun is kind of shining, the garden is looking more inviting than it ever has, and it’s time to start the weekend.

Have good ones.

Matt

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The 2020 Insurtech 100

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