Insurtech investment strong in 2020 despite COVID-19: Deloitte

Insurtech investments this year have been robust despite the COVID-19’s economic fallout and could approach 2019’s record-breaking year, says a report issued Monday.

There has been a total of $2.19 billion in insurtech investments during the first half despite the massive rise in unemployment, a negative GDP and volatile capital markets, according to the report issued by the Deloitte Center for Financial Services, a unit of London-based Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Ltd., which is based on data collected by San Francisco-based data firm Venture Scanner.

The $2.19 billion, which was invested in 67 insurtech firms, puts the sector “well on track” to finish with the second highest amount of investments,  topping the $2.7 billion to $3 billion full-year figures recorded for 2015, 2017 and 2018 and perhaps approaching 2019’s $5.54 billion, according to the report, COVID-19 Pandemic Shifts InsurTech Investment Priorities.

Funding, however, was concentrated among the top 10 insurtech firms, which accounted for nearly two-thirds of first-half investments, with the top four accounting for 44% of the total.

While this concentration is not new, “it is accelerating, a phenomenon becoming more pronounced over the past few years,” which has been described by more than one investor group as an ongoing flight to quality, the report said.

The report said priority in investments “will likely be given to those addressing the most pressing digitization and operational efficiency challenges faced by insurers hurriedly adjusting to the post-pandemic world, both internally and externally.”

More insurance and risk management news on the coronavirus crisis here.