Insurtech funding reached a record $15.8 billion in 2021, more than the combined $13.4 billion in 2020 and 2019, and the 564 yearly deal total is also a record, according to a report Friday from Gallagher Re, the reinsurance business of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.

More than half of total funding, some $9.4 billion, was invested in property/casualty insurtechs, with $6.4 billion, about 40.5% of the total, into life and health companies, Gallagher Re said in a statement with the report.

Fourth-quarter 2021 funding of nearly $5.3 billion more than doubled the $2.1 billion in fourth-quarter 2020 and the nearly $2 billion in fourth-quarter 2019, data from the report showed. The quarter was largely driven by 13 mega-round deals that accounted for 71% of the nearly $5.3 billion invested during that period.

The United States continued to attract the bulk of the funding, 9.5 billion in 2021, and has attracted some 50% of all insurtech funding since 2012. In first-quarter 2022, the U.S. took in 47% of insurtech funding, with France second at 18% and no other nation attracting more than 6% of total funding in first-quarter 2022. 

Gallagher suggested there is a “realization … that technology will be the platform, enabler and product that continues to keep our industry relevant and, hopefully, cost-efficient,” noting that over the past two years, in particular, pandemic restrictions “induced remote promotion and rapid adoption of technology.”

Andrew Johnston, global head of insurtech at Gallagher Re, said in the statement that “there’s no slowing down for the time being” and that since 2012 to the end of 2021, $41.65 billion had been invested globally into insurtechs across 2,249 deals in 63 countries.

Mr. Johnston noted that there were fewer, just five, mega-rounds in the first quarter of 2022 and that this may be a sign that “capital invested is actually becoming democratized,” yielding a more equally distributed spread of total capital invested.

He also reinforced the idea that technology is an integral part of the industry. “The vast majority of new insurance projects, ventures and businesses will be heavily supported by tech,” he said in the statement.

A recent report by research firm Forrester also showed record insurtech funding for 2021, while its data points do not match Gallagher’s exactly due to differences in report methodologies.