As the New Year dawns upon us, we can reflect and see that 2020 was a year of scarcity for Insurance companies, but was a year of abundance for InsurTech.

Insurance companies struggled with low-interest rates, business interruption lawsuits, economic uncertainty, and a hard market. Meanwhile, InsurTech startups discovered how to go public via SPACs (Clover Health and Metromile) and the traditional route (Root and Lemonade), were awarded unicorn valuations (DataRobot, Hippo, and Unqork), and continued to gain market traction even during economic uncertainty.

The big lesson from 2020 is that those who invested to position themselves for the future came out ahead. Life insurers positioned with automated underwriting keep selling policies. Property insurers with virtual claims processes kept their adjusters safe and adjustment expenses down. Risk managers with high safety ratings positioned themselves for a hard market.

At InsurTech NY, we decided to heed the lesson of 2020, by investing in the future. This week, we launched our Annual InsurTech Competition choosing to focus on the future, early-stage InsurTechs with under $250,000 in revenue.

If you know an InsurTech founder who is just getting started or wants to get discovered, please help us spread the word.

Full details here: https://www.insurtechny.com/competition/

Upcoming InsurTech Events and Programs

InsurTech Spring 2021 Conference: Catering to the Customer of 2025 (Pre-registration)
Mar 10 – 11 | 2 Full Days | Educational Content, Virtual Expo, and Networking | Virtual
– 75+ speakers, 20+ startup pitches, and a global startup competition
– Two most active InsurTech communities in North America join forces

InsurTech Early Stage Competition (Apply until Jan 29)
Simple Application | Finalists present at Spring Conference
– Judges include angel investors, early-stage VCs, and carriers looking for pilots
– Contestants can receive over $200,000 in awards

InsurTech NY Sponsors

Thank you to our sponsors for supporting the community: E2Value, EY, ClarionDoor, Locke Lord, Britecore, Guidewire, Eversheds Sutherland, EIS, Vymo

InsurTech New York Area Deals and Opportunities

Discover a curated mix of December and early January insurance financings, exits, partnerships, and opportunities in the New York area.

BigID ($70M Salesforce Ventures) Cyber Lines: Machine learning platform that helps enterprises better protect their customer and employee data at petabyte scale.

Vesttoo (Undisclosed Amount, Axon Fund) Multi-line: Risk modeling and alternative risk transfer for the Life and P&C insurance markets.

Interested in Volunteering?

InsurTech NY is actively looking for individuals looking to connect deeper into the InsurTech community. If you are interested, email us at contact@insurtechny.com.

Best,
David and Tony
InsurTech NY Team

NEW YORK, Jan. 5, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — InsurTech NY has opened the application window for their annual 2021 InsurTech Early-Stage Competition (www.insurtechny.com/competition).

The competition will award $200,000 in prizes to three winning teams. Startups will compete for the title of the company with the most commercial potential. Top teams will have the opportunity to present their business to a panel of judges at the InsurTech Spring Conference held March 10th-11th, co-hosted by InsurTech NY and InsurTech Hartford.

The finalists from last year’s competition gained investment and broad exposure to their business as a result of the competition. “The InsurTech NY competition has been a tremendous opportunity for us to get many more people excited about our unique offering,” said Itai Ben-Zaken, CEO of Agilius and winner of the 2020 early-stage competition.

Judges for the competition will be evaluating startups for potential investment or pilot opportunities. They comprise angel investors, venture capitalists, and insurance carriers including New York Angels, Park City Angels, Anthemis, Sure Ventures, Transverse, Nationwide, GreenlightRe, and Grange Insurance.

“The hardest part for any InsurTech is gaining the initial traction and relationships necessary to get to a first customer,” said David Gritz, co-founder of InsurTech NY. “By supporting the next crop of early-stage InsurTechs, we can create a sustainable ecosystem for insurance innovation.”

Early-stage companies eligible for the competition are InsurTechs that had less than $250,000 in revenue in 2020. The top 10 finalists will be invited to present at the InsurTech Spring Conference and will be announced in early March 2021. The deadline for submissions is January 29, 2021.