The top 50 emergent insurtechs from the Americas

Hello.

A slight derail from the usual SøNws. Mostly as I’m keen to share the Future50 Americas which we published earlier this week.

Future50 Americas

There has never been a more critical time to monitor startup activity and the Future50 is a series of reports featuring the leading emergent innovation from around the world.

To download this report head to: Future50 Americas

All the companies profiled are emergent insurtechs – early stage, Series A or below. Or at least they were at the time of judging. Already within the few weeks from judging to publication, four of them have raised a Series B or been acquired. Classic.

To keep up-to-date with the latest from the Future50 Americas we’ve also set up a Watchlist in Sønr.

Have a read and let me know your thoughts.

When reading the final 50 I was particularly pleased to see:

• Two of the top 5 were South American Insurtechs, one Canadian
• Four of the top 10 were founded by women
• Nine of the top 50 were founded in the past 2 years

It’s a promising direction of travel for the industry.

Congratulations to all those startups featured in the Future50 Americas.

Also a huge thanks to all the judges who helped with the scoring and finally to the tremendous amount of hard work from both my team at Sønr and our partners at Insurtech Insights.

YuLife making great strides

Starting with the UK and great to see YuLife announcing its $70m Series B earlier in the week.

On top of traditional group life insurance, YuLife offers a suite of wellbeing products as well as teleheath services, critical illness, income protection, counselling and coaching. It has also developed YuCoin, a virtual currency that is used to incentivise users into healthier habits.

Definitely worth checking out if you’re in this space.

The plan for them is to scale across Europe as well as develop new products and services for independent workers and the on-demand companies they work with.

Jumping over the border and Welsh crypto startup Coincover has secured a $9.2 million series A. Coincover, founded in 2018, provides insurance-backed guarantees for crypto investors.

And a couple from mainland Europe that caught my eye:

French emergent insurtech Assurly has brought in a €6m Seed round. Offering a mobile-based creditor insurance product, the plan is to now accelerate growth and develop other product lines.

The other is Stockholm-based, Insurello, which offers a claims management platform. It has just landed a €15 million investment.

Next week we’re publishing our Q2 Insurtech Briefing. In preparation, running through the investment data with the team, it’s quite surprising to see how much money has been pumped into Swedish insurtech over the past few months.

More on that next time.

Softbank’s growing footprint across the Americas

Keeping with the Americas it looks like SoftBank is planning to invest $5bn into LatAm-based companies.

Softbank first stepped in the LatAm market in 2000 when it set up SoftBank Latin America Ventures. I’m keen to see how this latest initiative impacts the speed at which the recipients of this money can scale.

I love what’s going on in LatAm and I’m excited by the global potential for some of these businesses.

Heading to North America and Lula, launched last year by Cuban American brothers Michael and Matthew Vega-Sanz, has brought in $18 million from investors including Softbank and billionaire hedge funder Bill Ackman.

The lesser-spotted emergent insurtech activity

A quick tour around the world featuring some of this week’s favourites:

In India InsuranceDekho plans to complete its $50m Series A.

InsuranceDeckho lets users compare insurance quotes from top-rated insurance companies and pick a policy that best meets its needs.

Interestingly the capital is for its ‘Saathi’ initiative – partnering with 50,000 micro-entrepreneurs to enable customers to buy insurance from offline local stores. I love this kind of stuff.

Founded in 2018, the insurtech provides customisable health insurance plans for individuals and families in the UAE via an AI-powered platform.

I don’t know too much about these guys other than they’re looking to make the shift from startup to enterprise. I’m hoping they might also invest in their website.

In South Korea the digital-only insurer, Carrot has managed to double its capital through a $90 million rights offering.

The insurtech recently hit 200,000 new subscribers to its pay-per-mile auto insurance cover in less than two years since launching the product. Not bad.

Lastly, in South Africa healthcare disruptor (yup, I did say that) iNNOHEALTH raised a seven-figure Seed round.

The start-up has the bold and formidable aim of providing affordable health care solutions to everyone in Africa. Founded in 2020 by two medical doctors and a chartered accountant (again, another great combo!), it looks to pioneer innovations that address healthcare accessibility and equality.

Its product, MyPocketHealth, is a digital marketplace that provides tailored healthcare solutions to patients regardless of their location. And because it’s mobile-based they can access care wherever they are – which is often far from traditional care.

Accelerating innovation through partnership

Keeping with health, AXA and QingSong Health Group have announced ‘a strategic cooperation pact’ in China.

The ‘pact’ is to explore insurance education, innovation and health services.

QingSong’s digital health platform includes insurance and services, including fundraising for serious illness and health counselling.

Having served more than 30m families since launch in 2014, the move is perhaps unsurprising given that health insurance is AXA’s fastest-growing product and sector in China and a strategic focus for the group globally.

A few closer to home and a great partnership between Wakam and Association Marion la main tendue which fights to prevent violence/harassment in schools.

Together they have launched Kolibri to counter the risk of cyber bullying and stalking.

For €18 a year per child, Kolibri offers a dedicated platform to guide families, provide legal protection and therapeutic support, and cover the costs for home-schooling for any child who does not wish to return to school after an incident.

You’ll be able to hear more from Wakam next week when we launch the Q2 Insurtech Briefing. I caught up with their Chief Marketing and Communications Eric Allombert to learn more about the company and in particular, their approach to innovation and partnerships.

Time for the last couple of investments, both relating to mobility.

Allianz has partnered with smart bicycle subscription service Swapfiets to launch a micro-mobility insurance programme in Germany, Italy and France (with Austria and Spain coming soon).

Swapfiet’s subscribers will now automatically be covered with Motor Third Party Liability insurance for their e-scooters and e-mopeds.

And as EVs become increasingly mainstream, they represent great potential opportunity for insurers.

Enter Zego who have announced a new partnership with energy giant BP in order to increase the use of electric vehicles in the ride-hail sector. Great to see.

Other market news

It sounds like Next Insurance has laid out an aggressive M&A plan to increase market share.

I find this fascinating and really exciting. The question whether the market will consolidate is indisputable. But who will drive M&A is less clear.

We know incumbents need to actively scout and acquire emergent insurtechs to remain competitive. But what if they’re not available because the well-funded scale-ups such as Next have already snapped them up?

Makes for an interesting market doesn’t it?!

Anyway, back to Next insurance and it has appointment Eran Liron as its first Chief Strategy Officer as part of its M&A plans.

Liron has previously served in a very similar role in software giant NICE where he has led M&A of more than 30 companies.

Last but not least it sounds like Policygenius might not be too far away from an IPO. Whilst it’s yet to be confirmed, there’s talk of it going down the SPAC route.

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Right, that is me. The sun is shining in the UK (finally) and I can smell the next door neighbour’s bbq drifting across the garden. Time to do the same I reckon.

Before I go, a quick job alert.

We’re on the hunt for a Customer Success Director.

After 6-months of bringing on board a stack of amazing new clients (Allianz, Wakam, Tokio Marine, Royal London Group, Talbot, Munich Re etc…I know, incredible right?!) we’re building the team.

Reporting into our Managing Partner you can be based anywhere in the world. The only ask (for now!) is that you share our love for insurance innovation and want to play a pivotal role in driving the industry forward.

Have a great weekend. Enjoy the Future50 Americas if you do get to download it.

Matt

Sønr is the world-leading market intelligence platform created specifically for the insurance sector. It provides you with the knowledge and tools to stay relevant, compete and plan for the future.

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