Insurtech investment remains robust in Q2: Willis Towers Watson

Insurtech investment hit $1.41 billion across 69 deals in the second quarter, the fourth consecutive quarter to top $1.2 billion in global insurtech investment, according to the new Quarterly Insurtech Briefing from Willis Towers Watson PLC on Thursday.

Year on year, property/casualty investment totals rose 283% while life and health rose 259%, and strategic investments by insurers and reinsurers hit a record high of 36, the report said.

Deal volume fell by more than one-fifth as transactions moved to later-stage, typically larger investments, and the number of early-stage investments dipped to its lowest point since the third quarter of 2017, “indicating increased maturity in the InsurTech sector,” the report said.

Seed and Series A funding of global insurtech start-ups attracted $147 million in the second quarter, with 59% of target ventures focused on insurance distribution and 54% invested in insurtechs from outside the U.S. or U.K., the report said.

The data shows a focus on distribution, or the “quote, bind and issue” process, Willis Towers Watson said.

“Using technology to speed up the process of binding has been made possible, not just because of limited human interaction but also because risk prices and would-be policyholder information can be verified for accuracy and authenticity by a system virtually instantaneously, allowing the process to continue almost seamlessly,” the report said. “The process of Quote, Bind, Issue has, in many global markets, become one seamless, end-to-end transaction of insurance business in real time.”

The more deliberate approach as shown by reduced deal volume, however, may be a sign that investors are taking a “more disciplined” approach to insurtech, Willis Towers Watson said.

“Technology as a strategic vertical is now commonplace in nearly every single insurer and reinsurer across the globe, but the technology from the incoming InsurTech pastures may not be quite as green or as impacting as many incumbents had hoped – or at least anticipated,” Andrew Johnston, global head of insurtech at Willis Re, said in a statement issued with the report.

“Whilst we remain resolute in our position about the value created by some InsurTechs, we are also maintaining our position of realistic pragmatism,” he added.