As we make our way through Q1 of 2019, let’s look back on 2018 and analyze how exit activity for insurance technology (insurtech) compares to previous years. The graphic below shows total annual insurtech exit events over time.
Insurance Technology Exits Over Time
As the graphic demonstrates, 2018 saw a drop in insurtech exit activity compared to the previous year. The 22 exit events in 2018 represent a 44% decrease from the 39 exit events in 2017, which was the highest year on record for exit activity. However, insurtech exits are still on a general upward trend, with a 5-year CAGR of 22% from 2013 to 2018.
The insurance technology (insurtech) industry has seen $27B in total all time funding. Let’s analyze the investors making bets into insurtech and identify the most active firms.
The graphic below shows insurtech investors based on their number of investments into the sector. If an investor participates in two investment rounds in the same company (such as a Series A and Series B), that would qualify as two investments for this graphic.
Insurance Technology Investors With Most Investments
As the graphic demonstrates, 500 Startups has made the most bets in the insurtech sector with 39 investments. Plug and Play follows in second place with 27 investments. Examples of companies 500 Startups invested in include Kin Insurance, Indio Technologies, Embroker, and Jones. Let’s see which investors make their way onto this list in 2019!
Now that 2018 is complete, let’s examine how funding in insurance technology (insurtech) compares to previous years. The graphic below shows the total annual insurtech funding amounts over time.
Insurance Technology Funding Over Time
As the graphic demonstrates, insurtech funding in 2018 was around the $3.8B mark. It represents a meager 2% increase from the previous year’s funding. Some of the largest funding events in 2018 include a $375M Corporate round for Oscar Health, a $300M Series B for Devoted Health, a $200M Series F for Policybazaar, and a $200M Series C for Bright Health. Nonetheless, insurtech funding grew at a CAGR of 18% from 2013 to 2018. We’re now eager to see if its funding can break away from its relatively steady state and into a growth phase again!
The insurance technology sector has seen stable funding in recent years. This blog post examines the different components of the insurtech sector and how they make up this startup ecosystem. We will illustrate what the categories of innovation are and which categories have the most companies. We will also compare the categories in terms of their funding and maturity.
Insurance Marketplace Is the Largest Insurance Technology Category
Let’s start off by looking at the Sector Map. We have classified 1519 insurance technology startups into 14 categories that have raised $25 billion. The Sector Map highlights the number of companies in each category. It also shows a random sampling of companies in each category.
Insurance Technology Sector Map
We see that Insurance Comparison and Marketplace is the largest category with 415 companies. These companies enable consumers to compare different insurance providers or buy insurance of any kind (car to home to health). Some example companies are Goji, Policygenius, CoverHound, and Coverfox.
Let’s now look at our Innovation Quadrant to find out the funding and maturity of these categories in relation to one another.
The Pioneers Quadrant Has the Most Insurance Technology Categories
Our Innovation Quadrant divides the insurance technology categories into four different quadrants.
Insurance Technology Innovation Quadrant
We see that the Pioneers quadrant has the most insurance technology categories with 10. These categories are in the earlier stages of funding and maturity. The Disruptors quadrant has 3 categories that have acquired significant financing at a young age. The Heavyweights quadrant has Reinsurance as its one category. This category has reached maturity with significant financing.
We’ve analyzed the insurance technology categories and their relative stages of innovation. Let’s now look at how they stack up against one another in terms of their total funding versus company counts.
Health Insurance Startups Have the Most Funding
The graph below shows the total amount of venture funding and company count in each category.
Insurance Technology Total Funding and Company Count
As the above graphic implies, the Health Insurance category leads the sector in total funding with $11.4B. Life, Home, P&C Insurance and Auto Insurance follow in second and third places with $8.4B and $7.6B in total funding, respectively.
Health Insurance contains companies that offer health-related insurance products for consumers and businesses. Some example companies in this category include HealthSherpa, GoHealth, Oscar, and Stride Health.
Conclusion: Insurance Marketplace and Health Insurance Lead Insurtech
As the analysis above demonstrates, Insurance Marketplace leads the sector in total companies. The Health Insurance category leads in total funding.
We’ve previously highlighted that insurtech funding has remained stable in recent years. When we take a closer look at the funding trends per insurtech category, we notice that the Health Insurance category leads in both Q3 and overall funding.
We’ll highlight this observation with some graphics and discussions below.
The Health Insurance Category Leads Insurance Technology In Q3 Funding
To start off, let’s review the amount of funding raised this quarter per category within insurance technology.
The above graphic highlights that the Health Insurance category leads the sector in Q3 funding with $480M. Its funding is 2.4 times the funding of the next category, Auto Insurance at $204M.
Health Insurance contains companies that offer health-related insurance products for consumers and businesses. Some example companies in this category include HealthSherpa, GoHealth, Oscar, and Stride Health.
Let’s now investigate how the insurtech categories’ funding compare with each other historically.
The Health Insurance Category Also Leads in All-Time Funding
The graph below shows the all-time funding for the various insurance technology categories. The Q3 funding and growth rates of these categories are also highlighted.
Insurance Technology Total Category Funding
As the bar graph indicates, the Health Insurance category also leads in total funding at $11.4B. Life, Home, P&C Insurance category follows in second place with $8.4B in total funding.
In summary, Health Insurance category leads the insurtech sector in funding. Let’s see how the the rest of 2018 shapes up for insurance technology!
