Since the beginning of the InsurTech wave in 2015, one theme has remained constant: “Distribution is King.”
The first InsurTech Startup Showcase in Silicon Valley at SVIA in 2015 featured Embroker (digital broker), Trov (embedded insurance), and Jumpstart (Earthquake focused MGA). In 2016, InsureTech Connect highlighted Lemonade’s CEO Daniel Schreiber as its keynote speaker.
The distribution thread continued as insurers like AXA, MunichRe, American Family, and SCOR developed labs and Corporate Venture groups to partner with and invest in evolving distribution models. American Family invested in Coverhound’s Series C. SCOR backed many of the rising stars including Branch and States Title. MunichRe incubated Tenzy, an internal project for embedded home insurance. And, AXA XL partnered with Slice to release an on-demand, cloud-based cyber insurance product.
Today, the Hudson Structured InsurTech Index (HPIX), which currently tracks 18 publicly traded InsurTechs, has become a bellwether for established InsurTechs. Of the 18 companies in the Index, 15 are primarily involved in distributing insurance.
To support the trend, InsurTech NY will be hosting an event focused on distribution on Oct 21. Learn about the evolution of distribution through marketplaces, internal innovations, cross-selling, and upgraded workflows. This event will take place in person in NYC and will be live streamed.
Full Event Details: https://distribution2021.eventbrite.com
The largest event in InsurTech is coming up in October. Everyone who is allowed to travel is planning on attending. You can find us at ITC in 2 places.
Innovation Alley – Find InsurTech NY Village in the Expo hall in the middle of Innovation Alley. Stop by and visit our startups who will have expo kiosks: BobTrak, Daylight, Gigaforce, Goose Insurance, OneClick Code, Pinpoint Predictive, Sensely, Stable Insurance, Verikai.
VIP Happy Hour – Join the number one ranked (on Google) ITC Happy Hour co-hosted by Airkit, Appian, Boost Insurance, Daylight, EIS Group, Microsoft, Relay, and Vymo. The Happy Hour will be at the Las Vegas Golf Center and Rockstar Bar. It includes unlimited food, drinks and golf at the range for attendees. You can only attend the event by receiving invites from the co-hosts listed above.
We have a couple remaining spaces for additional co-hosts. If you are interested please reach out to contact@insurtechny.com.
Building Digital Distribution Channels
Oct 21 | 1:00PM – 6:00PM | New York (335 Madison Ave) + Virtual
– Featuring: CEO of Kin Insurance, CUO of Hippo, CMO of Nassau, and CEO of iptiQ Americas
– 4 High impact panels: Selling via InsurTech Marketplaces, Building Internal InsurTechs, Accelerating DIgital Workflows, and Reaching the Incremental Last Customer
Integrating Data to Save Lives – Wellness, Safety and ESG
Nov 16 | 5:30PM – 8:30PM | New York (23rd and 5th Ave) + Virtual
– Featuring: SwissRe Head of U/W Propositions, Marsh SVP, Casualty Advisor
Thank you to our sponsors for supporting the community: Advantage Go, Appian, Avanta Ventures, Boost Insurance, Eversheds Sutherland, e2Value, EY, F-Secure, Levvel/Endava, and Locke Lord.
Discover a curated mix of August insurance financings, exits, partnerships, opportunities, and partner events on the East Coast.
InsurTech News and Deals
BriteCore ($20M Raised, Warburg Pincus): P&C. Web-based workflow management platform for agents and brokerages.
Sproutt ($26M Raised, MoreTech Ventures): Life Insurance. Wellness-based life insurance platform for fully underwritten products also offering simplified issue, and guaranteed issue life products.
Kalepa ($14M Raised, Inspired Capital and IA Ventures): Commercial Lines. AI based underwriting platform focused on decision support for existing underwriters.
DealerPolicy ($110M, Goldman Sachs): P&C Insurance: Embedded F&I platform providing automobile dealers a unified solution to cross sell additional products during the financing process.
Trustlayer ($15M, Craft Ventures): RPA and AI: Business focused automated verification system for reviewing insurance coverage and licenses.
Blueprint Title ($16M, Forté Ventures): Title Insurance: Native software platform offering streamlined title searching, documentation, underwriting, and policy issue.
Partner Events
Insurtech Pathways: How insurtech can scale into the US market (Sept 28): Register for virtual event hosted by InsurTech Australia here.
InsureTech Connect (Oct 4-6): Save $200 off published tickets, register here.
When four-time Olympic gold medalist, U.S. gymnast Simone Biles pulled out of the ongoing Tokyo Olympics, her decision was met with confusion and dismay.
Why would the best gymnast in the world leave the competition without physical injuries?
It’s because of twisties, a condition well understood by gymnasts and acrobats, but unknown to the public. Twisties is a condition where the body is disconnected from the mind. In a brain with twisties, synchronizations of fine motor movements in the cerebellum become disconnected from the appropriate nerve signals to the spinal cord.
In interviews with NPR and Washington Post, Biles explained the condition, “So I was trying a two-and-a-half [twisting vault], and I ended up doing a one-and-a-half . . . I had no idea where I was in the air … I could have hurt myself.”
Just like Olympians, insurers need to keep their mind (strategic plans) connected with their bodies (core systems). As an insurer moving on a quarterly clock speed, as most public companies do, your core system needs to do the name. The problem is if you have multiple underwriting systems, some with built in 20-year-old home-grown software, it is easy to get organizational twisties.
That’s why InsurTech NY decided to host its next event on the Perennial Core System. Perennial flowers regrow every spring and are designed to endure indefinitely. Likewise, robust core systems must do the same, but continue to evolve to survive through hail, wildfire, and pandemic claims.
Join us virtually on Aug 26 and hear from IT leaders at carriers including CSAA, Copper Point, Everest Re, and Palomar.
Perennial Core Systems Event: Eventbrite
The pace of InsurTech investment is faster than ever. Leading the pack are Corporate Venture Capital (CVC) groups that operate inside or in affiliation with insurers. Insurance CVC funds range in size from $50M to over $500M in investable capital.
Corporate venturing is a recent phenomenon, almost all insurance CVC Groups have formed after 2013. More than 50 insurers have either made a direct off-balance-sheetAn investment or invested through their CVC. The mystery remains, what happens behind the scenes at insurers making startup investments.
To study this trend, we have partnered with Tilburg University in the Netherlands to conduct a benchmark study. The study will be presented at our private Corporate Venture Capital Forum in September. Only those who complete the benchmark survey will be eligible to attend the Forum where we present our findings.
If you are with a carrier or broker that has invested in startups in the last 10 years, please help us by completing the survey or share with an appropriate colleague.
Survey available here: https://cvc2021.paperform.co/
The Perennial Core System and Claims Automation (15% off, code embedded)
Aug 26 | 1PM – 3PM Edu Content and 3PM – 4PM Networking | Fully Virtual
– Featuring: SVP of Everest Re, CIO of Copper Point, and VP of Claims of Palomar
Building Digital Distribution Channel
Oct 21 | 1:00PM – 6:00PM | New York (23rd and 5th Av) + Virtual
– Featuring: Sean Harper, CEO of Kin Insurance
Integrating Data to Save Lives – Wellness, Safety and Climate
Nov 16 | 5:30PM – 8:30PM | New York (23rd and 5th Av) + Virtual
Thank you to our sponsors for supporting the community: Avanta Ventures, EY, Britecore, and Levvel.
Discover a curated mix of July insurance financings, exits, partnerships, opportunities, and partner events on the East Coast.
InsurTech News and Deals
Lula ($18M, Founders Fund): Auto Insurance: API platform to provide driver risk assessment and manage episodic insurance policies for auto rentals and commercial fleets.
Wagmo ($12.5M, Revolution Ventures): Pet Insurance: Online subscription wellness plan and broker of pet insurance.
Bolttech ($180M, Activant Capital): P&C Insurance: Microservices-based insurance exchange platform to connect carriers to affinity partners.
Akur8 ($30M, MTech Capital): Platform to automate insurance rate making using machine learning minus the block of traditional AI.
Accelerators: InsurTech NY accelerator applications closed on August 2, but our friends at the Global Insurance Accelerator (apply till Sep 12), Brush Creek Partners (apply till Aug 22), and InsurTech Munich Hub (apply till Sep 13) have open applications.
Partner Events
Insurance AI and Innovative Tech USA 2021 (Sep 14-15): Register here for Reuters virtual event here.
InsureTech Connect (Oct 4-6): Save $200 off published tickets, register here.
InsurTech Hartford Symposium (10/26). Tickets are now available for their annual program here.
After 15 months in captivity, carrier and broker offices are trending towards reopening at full capacity. Although air travel is not in full swing yet, the hallmarks of in-person activities are all starting again. Agents are brokers are meeting with clients. Internal meetings are happening in conference rooms that hold more than a few people. And InsurTech conferences are now happening in person.
June 28th marked the first major in-person conference, the Global Insurance Symposium. More than 200 people gathered including insurance commissioners, carrier leaders, and InsurTech founders in Des Moines. But questions remain: will events still have to run hybrid? How many people is too many for events? When will Europe catch up to U.S. vaccination rates?
Seeking to find the right balance, InsurTech NY announced its 2021 accelerator program to run as a hybrid program (3 days in person in NYC, the remaining virtual) in the fourth quarter. Growth-stage startups will have the opportunity to meet 20+ carriers and brokers at the in-person selection day followed by virtual programming to support their business development, talent recruiting, and fundraising activities.
InsurTechs can read about the program and apply at: InsurTech NY Accelerator.
Or join our next information session at: Information session
On Aug 26th, we will be hosting our next virtual event. Core Systems upgrades and improvements continue to be a major theme for carriers looking to transition their products to a digital world. Moving from legacy systems to SaaS or hybrid cloud platforms can be a make-or-break project for IT departments.
It does not have to be that risky. Learn how carriers using agile methodologies to minimize the risk of core systems transformations and incremental upgrades to breathe new functionality into legacy systems. Beyond the core, sessions will explore how to automate claims using InsurTech solutions and robotic process automation (RPA).
Register at: https://coreandclaims.eventbrite.com/
The Perennial Core System and Claims Automation (Early-bird tickets available)
Aug 26 | 1PM – 3PM Edu Content and 3PM – 4PM Networking | Fully Virtual
– Featuring: CIO of EverestRe, CIO of Copper Point, and VP of Claims of Palomar
Building Digital Distribution Channel (Early-bird tickets available)
Oct 21 | 5:30PM – 8:30PM | New York + Virtual
Integrating Data to Save Lives – Wellness, Safety and Climate (Early-bird tickets available)
Nov 16 | 5:30PM – 8:30PM | New York + Virtual
Thank you to our sponsors for supporting the community: Avanta Ventures, Britecore
Discover a curated mix of May and June insurance financings, exits, partnerships, opportunities, and partner events on the East Coast.
Partner Events
Insurance AI and Innovative Tech USA 2021 (Sep 14-15): Register here for next Reuters virtual event here.
InsureTech Connect (Oct 4-6): If you have not registered yet, save $200 with our partner discount. Register here.
InsurTech Hartford Symposium (10/26). Pre-register now for discounts before they go live here.
InsurTech Deals
Branch Insurance ($50M, Anthemis Group): Home & Auto Insurance: Operator of insurance platform offering home, car, renter, and umbrella insurance services.
Corvus Insurance ($15M, FinTLV): Commercial: Developer of an AI-driven commercial insurance data platform designed to improve risk selection and management.
Mile Auto ($10M, Ulu Ventures): Auto UBI: Provider of pay-per-mile insurance services intended to offer car insurance for low-mileage drivers based on actual miles driven.
Boost Insurance ($20M, RRE Ventures): Embedded and API: Developer of a digital insurance platform designed to build, embed, and deliver insurance products.
Waffle Labs ($5M, Verve Ventures): Multi-line: Developer of an insurance application designed to provide customizable insurance plans for all products.
Planck ($20M, 3L Capital): Data Analytics: Operator of an AI-based data platform designed to offer real-time insurance-related data analytics insights to insurance providers.
The Colonial Pipeline hack is a reflection of the state of broader American infrastructure. One critical channel has the potential to impact fuel prices and availability for an entire segment of the country.
On a broader scale, the threat to cybersecurity is one the insurance industry should use as a wake-up call. Just in the last 2 years, five major cybersecurity incidents have directly impacted insurers:
CNA – Mar 2021 – Resulted in compromised corporate email
Aetna – Dec 2020 – EyeMed division exposed nearly 500,000 members personal information
Desjardins – Nov 2019 – More than 40% of its clients had persona information leaked
State Farm – Aug 2019 – a credential stuffing attack compromised usernames and passwords
First American Title – May 2019 – 800+ million files were left exposed without authentication
Now is the time to think about how we can build back better our core systems and cyber infrastructure. If you are looking for answers, please join us on August 26th for our Core Systems Event.
On May 20th, we will be hosting the largest gathering of InsurTech focused investors. If you are looking to spot new product and market trends and understand the story behind the growth in InsurTech investment, there is no better time to learn.
Startups looking for investment can join our virtual networking on Remo which will feature Corporate Venture units from Transverse Insurance, Avanta Ventures (CSAA), Aflac, CFMG (Cuna Mutual), Guardian, NFP, Unum, SCOR, QBE, and Liberty Mutual. Venture groups will be available at virtual tables in an Ask Me Anything style of interaction. Plus, free networking will be available with an additional 20+ traditional venture groups attending.
Register at: https://insurtechinvestment2021.eventbrite.com
InsurTech Innovation Challenge (By InsurTech Hartford)
May 14 (last day to apply) | $27,500 in awards | Limited to startups under $1M in revenue
InsurTech Investment Summit (20% code applied: News)
May 20 | 1PM – 3PM Edu Content and 3PM – 5PM Networking | Fully Virtual
– Featuring: Partner at Avanta Ventures, Principal at MunichRe Ventures, CEO of Transverse
Accessing the Non-Admitted Insurance Market for InsurTech (CLE Credits available)
Jun 9 | 12PM – 1PM Edu Webinar | Fully Virtual
The Perennial Core System and Claims Automation (Early-bird tickets available)
Aug 26 | 1PM – 3PM Edu Content and 3PM – 5PM Networking | Fully Virtual
Thank you to our sponsors for supporting the community: Avanta Ventures, Locke Lord, Thompson & Prince
Discover a curated mix of April and early May insurance financings, exits, partnerships, opportunities, and partner events on the East Coast.
WTW Quarterly InsurTech Briefing: 146 deals announced with over $2.5B in funding. Read the full report here.
InsureTech Connect (Oct 4-6): If you have not registered yet, save $200 with our partner discount. Register here.
Kin Insurance ($64M, HSCM): Home Insurance: Digital platform for homeowners insurance.
Wunderite ($3M, Spark Capital): Commercial P&C: Automated platform for insurance submissions.
Sigo ($1.5M, Amicle Capital): Auto Insurance: Operates a mobile-first auto insurance brokerage focused on the uninsured or underinsured Latinx market.
Arturo ($25M, Atlantic Bridge): Property: Aerial imagery platform and analytics platform for underwriting and CAT risk modeling.
Brella Insurance ($15M, Brewer Lane Ventures): Supplemental Health Benefits: Benefits platform to bridge the deductible gap for more than 13,000 health conditions.
Level ($27M, Lightspeed Ventures): Dental and Vision Benefits: Digital platform to streamline employer-sponsored benefits management of dental and vision benefits.
Gradient AI ($20M, American Family Ventures): Multi-line: Predictive analytics and decision support platform to automate underwriting and claims workflows.
Clearcover ($200M, Eldridge): Auto Insurance: Digital-first auto insurance MGA.
Did you know: NYC is home to 10 insurance Corporate VCs? Here is how that stacks up against other cities with clusters of active insurance corporate venturing groups:
NYC Metro: 10
Paris: 4
San Francisco Bay Area: 4
London: 3
Boston: 3
Columbus: 3
Curious to learn more about the trends in InsurTech investments and how traditional VCs, corporate VCs, and angel investors are picking companies?
Join us for our InsurTech Investment Summit on May 20th.
Find the full details here: https://insurtechinvestment2021.eventbrite.com
On April 20th, InsurTech NY will host a private executive briefing for corporate innovation program members on the State of Digital MGAs jointly with EY. Carrier and broker innovation leaders and executives will discuss trends with digital MGAs and strategies for partnership. Also, seven digital MGAs across P&C and life lines of business will present.
Presenting startups include: Jenny Life, Deadhappy, Agilius, Branch Insurance, Cover Genius, Energetic Insurance, and Fleetr.
Read more about the program (here) or request an invite for our next executive briefing contact@insurtechny.com
InsurTech Investment Summit (20% code applied: News)
May 20 | 1PM – 3PM Edu Content and 3PM – 5PM Networking | Fully Virtual
– Featuring: Partner at Avanta Ventures, Principal at MunichRe Ventures, CEO of Transverse
– Highlighted CVCs + VCs: Aflac, AXA VP, CFMG, Guardian, Liberty Mutual, Nationwide, QBE, Unum
The Perennial Core System and Claims Automation (Early-bird tickets available)
Aug 26 | 1PM – 3PM Edu Content and 3PM – 5PM Networking | Fully Virtual
Parametric cover and Straight-through Processing (Register here)
Apr 22 | 12PM – 1:30PM | Hosted by InsurTech Hartford
Thank you to our sponsors for supporting the community: Avanta Ventures, EY, Locke Lord
Discover a curated mix of March and early April insurance financings, exits, partnerships, opportunities, and partner events on the East Coast.
InsurTech NY Competition Winners (Press Release): Over 100 early-stage InsurTechs applied from around the world and were judged by 26 investor judges. Four winners were selected, one from each group of judges. Winners are Tide, Loadsure, Delos, and RemitRix.
Vericred ($23M, Aquiline): Health Lines: Platform to connect carriers and employee benefits providers with new technology partners.
Pie Insurance ($118M, Allianz X): Workers Comp Lines: Digital MGA providing workers compensation insurance to SMBs.
Asteya ($10M, I2BF Venture) Income Insurance: Provides financial health and wellbeing by transforming the disability insurance space.
Hi Marley ($25M, Emergence Capital) Multiline: Enables hassle-free texting across the entire ecosystem, empowering insurance professionals and delighting policyholders.
Corvus Insurance ($100M, Insight Partners): Commercial: a leading provider of commercial insurance products built on advanced data science.
RatesDotCA ($51M, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board): Multiline: Rate comparison website that offers a quick and simple digital experience to compare the widest selection of insurance and money products in the market.
Beam Dental ($80M, Mercato Partners): Dental: Digital-first dental benefits provider that incorporates dental hygiene behavior into policy pricing
OnRamp Insurance Conference (May 4, Virtual): Learn more here and save 20% with code “InsurTechNY”
The Future of Insurance USA 2021 (Reuters Events): Registration is now available for the June 22 program, here.
Selected job openings and opportunities in our community.
Associate / Manager at InsurTech NY (AngelList)
Summer Associate at InsurTech NY (AngelList)
Venture Capital – Principal at Nationwide (Nationwide Careers)
Venture Capital Associate at Nationwide (Nationwide Careers)
Venture Capital – Head of Platform Operations at Nationwide (Nationwide Careers)
InsurTech VC Investor – Finance & Insurance at Hudson Structured (LinkedIn and LinkedIn)
Analogies abound about animal spirits being the underlying driving force for market competition. Whether your sales team talks about “crushing the competition” or your investment team debates how long the “bull market” will last, we are driven to compete.
However, not all competition has to be zero-sum. Competition in sport has winners and losers, but all participants improve their health and wellness as a result of training.
That’s why we built our annual InsurTech competition. Although we have winners who were carefully selected by judges, our hope is the entire ecosystem of participants will have sharpened their business model and company prospects as a result of applying.
Notwithstanding, every competition does have winners. Over 120 applications were carefully deliberated on by more than 24 judges. Now, we are excited to announce the finalists in our global competition and Bermuda BDA selected sub-group.
Global Competition Finalists: Delos, Finaeo, Tide Foundation, Dockflow, Coverhero, Digisure, Claimspace, Loadsure, HealthyHealth, Startsure
Bermuda BDA Finalists: Coastal Risk, RemitRix, Safekeep
Today is the final day to purchase tickets at the general admission price. So act quickly.
Read about all the sessions here: https://insurtechmarch2021.eventbrite.com/?aff=News33
Here are 4 highlights:
1. Thought leadership on hot topics: catering to the millennial consumer, the digital user experience, insurance role in climate change, digital transformation in the cloud, and talent diversity and inclusion.
2. Presentations by InsurTech competition finalists: hear presentations from our finalists
3. Entertaining sessions: (i) Interactive Play on He Said, She Said: startup and carrier perspectives of working together and (ii) Watch and play along with a game show
4. Great networking tools: (i) Remo: wander the expo halls, check out new products, and network just like in-person and (ii) Grip: get connected via AI matching and have scheduled meetings
InsurTech Spring 2021 Conference: Catering to the Customer of 2025
Mar 10 – 11 | 2 Full Days | Educational Content, Virtual Expo, and Networking | Virtual
– 75+ speakers, 20+ startup pitches, and a global startup competition
– Featuring: Clover Health CEO, CT Deputy Commissioner, SVP Underwriting SwissRe
Thank you to our sponsors for supporting the community
Discover a curated mix of February and Early March insurance financings, exits, partnerships, opportunities, and partner events in the New York area.
Koffie Labs ($4.5M Anthemis) Commercial P&C Lines: Purpose-built for the next generation of trucking and transportation.
Earnix ($75M Insight Partners) Multiline: Analytical enterprise rating, pricing, and product platform.
Pawlicy Advisor ($6.5M Rho Capital Partners): Pet Lines: Pet insurance marketplace.
Marble ($2.5M IA Capital): Personal P&C Lines: digital wallet and loyalty platform for insurance.
The Future of Insurance USA 2021 (Reuters Events): Registration is now available for the June 22 program, here.
Venture Summit Virtual Connect West (Young Startup): Registration is available here.
InsurTech NY is hiring an associate to join our dynamic team. Be at the center of insurance innovation at the nexus of high growth startups, leading edge insurers, and venture investors. If you are interested or know someone who would be a good fit please email Ira Ziff at iraziff@theinsurancerecruiter.net. Find the full job description on Linkedin.
Best,
David and Tony
InsurTech NY Team
February marks the first month since the start of the pandemic where the 7-day rolling average number of vaccine doses administered per day exceeded 1 million people.
The positive growth trend of doses administered means a return to maskless days is on the horizon. However, most carriers are not ready to plan beyond Q3. The on-going health impacts, changes to the workplace, and the global financial impact all create a wave of uncertainty.
Therefore, simple long-term planning this year can garner a real competitive advantage.
As a community that hosts events to bring people together, we need to understand when we can layer in in-person programs. What matters most to a transition to a post-Covid world is when it happens and how where we will reach herd immunity.
There is a good deal of optimism that we will reach herd immunity by the summer. We did some simple math for you to find out what that takes. Biden’s 100-day target is 1.5M doses per day. In order for us to reach herd immunity (70% of the population vaccinated) by summertime, it will take 3M doses/day, twice Biden’s 100-day target.
Given the math above, how optimistic are you about our immunization targets?
Each level puts at a vastly different month for herd immunity. Join the conversation on Linkedin and share your vote and reasoning:
LinkedIn Discussion: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6764740644322783232
InsurTech Spring 2021 Conference: Catering to the Customer of 2025 (10% Off: NewsFeb-10)
Mar 10 – 11 | 2 Full Days | Educational Content, Virtual Expo, and Networking | Virtual
– 75+ speakers, 20+ startup pitches, and a global startup competition
– Featuring: Clover Health CEO, CT Deputy Commissioner, SVP Underwriting SwissRe
Thank you to our sponsors for supporting the event: e2Value, EY, ClarionDoor, Locke Lord, Britecore, Guidewire, EIS, Vymo, Breathe Life, Microsoft, Launch Hartford, Appian, Duck Creek, Innoveo, Instanda, ushur, Ivans, Insurmi, Slice Labs, eBaotech, Avanta Ventures, Eversheds-Sutherland, Friendly, FastTrack, Bermuda BMA, Thompson & Prince, Insurance Recruiter
InsurTech New York Area Deals and Opportunities
Discover a curated mix of January and Early Feb insurance financings, exits, partnerships, opportunities, and partner events in the New York area.
TrustLayer ($6.6M Propel Venture Partners) Commercial P&C Lines: Collaborative risk management application that helps reduce friction between businesses.
DealerPolicy ($30M 3L Capital) Auto Lines: Complete digital insurance marketplace for automotive retailers.
Rhino ($95M Tiger Global Management): Personal P&C Lines: Renter security deposit insurance.
Nayya ($11M Felicis Ventures): Benefits Lines: Insurance benefits experience and management platform
Bold Penguin (Acquired by American Family): Commercial P&C Lines: Commercial insuance exchange.
Lloyds Lab (UK InsurTech Accelerator): Accepting applications until Feb 22. Apply here.
The Future of Insurance USA 2021 (Reuters Events): Waitlist is now available for the June 22 program, here.
Venture Summit Virtual Connect West (Young Startup): Registration is available here.
InsurTech NY is actively looking for individuals looking to connect deeper into the InsurTech community. We are looking for a writer interested in helping us research trends related to our upcoming December event. If you are interested, email us at contact@insurtechny.com.
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/
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
Thank you to our sponsors for supporting the community: E2Value, EY, ClarionDoor, Locke Lord, Britecore, Guidewire, Eversheds Sutherland, EIS, Vymo
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.
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
Once life adapts to the new normal, December 2020 will be remembered as a special month. The month of the vaccine. Prior to December, Mumps was the fastest vaccine to make it to the market that was developed by a vaccine savant, Maurice Hilleman. (Full NPR Story) This process was functionally manual, using a live virus and evolving the virus via chicken embryos.
Fortunately for us, vaccine science has evolved since 1967, and a once theoretical technique of using mRNA to develop a vaccine may now become the new standard.
That brings us back to insurance. Imagine how the world could change if 4-year processes could be done in 11 months. If the entire industry came together for change. In a way, that is happening. The InsurTech community is driving change, but many of us are still caught up in low-interest rates and the next six months.
To help you get beyond 2021, InsurTech NY has decided to use March as an opportunity to look out four years to 2025. And, we have partnered with InsurTech Hartford, in the spirit of bringing the industry together. Join us on March 10-11 for a discussion on 2025, for our InsurTech Spring Conference, themed Catering to the Customer of 2025.
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, 2 global competition
– Two most active InsurTech communities in North
Thank you to our sponsors for supporting the community: E2Value, EY, ClarionDoor, Locke Lord, Britecore, Guidewire, Eversheds Sutherland, EIS
Discover a curated mix of November and early December insurance financings, exits, partnerships, and opportunities in the New York area.
Smartvid.io ($5M, IA Capital) Commercial Lines: AI-powered construction safety platform to help companies identify their highest risk projects and to act to prevent incidents from occurring.
Battleface ($12M, Greenlight Re) Personal Lines: Speciality travel insurance for travelers visiting or working internationally.
Centivo ($34M, B Capital Group) Health Lines: Administrator of self-funded health plans for employers.
Novidea ($15M, JAL Ventures) Multi-Line: cloud-based agency management system (AMS)
OneShield (Undisclosed, Bain Capital) P&C Lines: A portfolio of core system platforms for policy management, billing, claims, rating, and business intelligence.
CAIS Group ($50M, Eldridge) Wealth Management: financial technology platform for financial advisors who seek improved access to and education about alternative investment strategies.
DataRobot ($320M, Altimeter Capital) Multi-Line: Enterprise AI platform democratizing data science with end-to-end automation for building, deploying, and managing machine learning models.
FinPay Holding ($5M, Montreux Growth) Health Lines: Automating patient engagement to deliver cost transparency, education, and affordable payment options for patients.
Openly ($40M, AVP) Personal Lines: A technology-enabled, high-end home MGA.
Jornaya (Acquisition amount undisclosed, Verisk): Proprietary behavioral data to help marketing teams improve consumer engagement through an understanding of buying journeys.
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
Following the August announcement of the FINEOS acquisition of Limelight Health and PE acquisition of Majesco, Q4 has already become red hot with InsurTech deals. A short timeline of deal announcements highlights the trend:
Analyzing the recent acquisitions, it is clear the strength of the market is multi-dimensional. From a traditional M&A perspective, Brown and Brown’s acquisition doubles down on the trend started by Prudential and Aon that carriers and brokers are looking to acquire new paths for distribution. Likewise, traditional insurance vendors like Insurity demonstrate that the market for product extensions for service providers is a viable exit route for startups.
Meanwhile, it is the public market and InsurTech consolidation trend that is new and most exciting. There now exists a crop of InsurTechs with cash flow and balance sheets that make it possible to consolidate with other InsurTechs. Bold Penguin is less than five years in the market. Likewise, Root is only in its fifth year and now a public company. In fact, according to Tushar Virmani from JP Morgan, in his presentation in our accelerator, at least 15% of the tech IPOs this year are InsurTechs.
Investors can now have the confidence to place bets on InsurTechs knowing that a liquidity event can take at least five paths: insurer acquisition, tech provider acquisition, InsurTech acquisition, SPAC to the public market, or IPO.
In 2021, InsurTech NY plans to continue to highlight InsurTech deals and bring the founders who made it to exit to our panels and discussions.
Emerging Technologies in Insurance: AI, RPA, IoT (Register at early-bird discount)
Dec 10 | 1PM – 3PM Educational Content and 3PM – 5PM Networking | Fully Virtual
– 2 Panels, 2 Ted Talks, 2 Hours of Networking
– Featuring: Allstate RPA leader and E2Value CEO
Thank you to our sponsors for supporting the community: EIS, E2Value, Eversheds Sutherland, and EY.
InsurTech New York Area Deals and Opportunities
Discover a curated mix of early November insurance financings, exits, partnerships, and opportunities in the New York area.
BTV Accelerator (Applications open until Nov 30): Accelerator that brings broker-centric InsurTech startups together to provide seed-funding, a hyper-accelerated curriculum, and direct access to our Agency & Non-Agency Mentor circuit.
InsurTech NY is actively looking for individuals looking to connect deeper into the InsurTech community. We are looking for a writer interested in helping us research trends related to our upcoming December event. If you are interested, email us at contact@insurtechny.com.