Insurtech - Thematic Research

Insurtech - Thematic Research

Summary

Over 2020-21, the insurtech market was characterized by huge company valuations created though both public and private funding. Interest rate increases - along with increasingly strenuous economic pressures on investors - have acted to reduce the incentives and appetite for investors to get involved in such activity. This trend is likely to persist for the remainder of 2022 and most of 2023. The effect of the insurtech phenomenon on the wider insurance industry is clear to see. New-age technologies and processes involving artificial intelligence, blockchain, the Internet of Things, and big data have been championed by startups, forcing incumbents to react and match the efficiencies these tools have brought.

Following a few years of high-level investment, high valuations, and high pressure on insurtechs, 2022 has marked the start of a reality check for the sector. Share prices of most publicly listed insurtechs have followed similar downward trends, driving some to artificially inflate their prices. As the economic situation across the world takes on an increasingly bleak outlook, pressure is now on leading insurtechs to show signs of profitability with investor finance in shorter supply. Many firms have been forced to reduce headcount - often shortly after announcing ambitious expansion plans.

Scope

• GlobalData’s Deals Database indicates that by mid-August 2022, the number of completed deals in the insurtech theme was at just 49.2% of the whole of 2021.
• Marmalade is the most well-known brand in the UK among popular insurtechs, although just 12.9% of consumers indicated that they had heard of the company.
• In GlobalData’s 2021 UK Insurance Consumer Survey, 51.9% of respondents indicated that they would be unlikely to purchase insurance from a startup. For consumers under 40, this figure dropped to 31.3%.

• Identify leaders in insurtech across a variety of disciplines.
• Determine how leaders use modern technologies to drive efficiency and reach new consumers.
• Recognize how incumbents are collaborating with insurtechs to improve their own product offerings and customer experience.
• Evaluate the strength of investment into the insurtech theme and ascertain the drivers behind changes in investing.