Insurtech’s first ‘public unicorn’ debuts in Q2-2020…

Investments in the ‘insurtech’ sector saw a 71% rise in a quarter-over-quarter comparison with Q1-2020, according to the latest Willis Tower Watson – CB Insights Quarterly Insurtech. Investment increased by approximately $1.56 billion among 74 major deals. The report notes that while the amount of deals was down 23% as compared to Q1-2020, this was compensated by the size of each the deals announced in Q2-2020, specifically four “mega-rounds of 100+ million’. Those deals announced during this past quarter included:

Duck Creek (US$230 million),
Oscar Health (US$225 million),
Pie Insurance (US$127 million),
and States Title (US$123 million)

A couple of other noteworthy data points from the quarterly report:

Q2-2020 saw a 10% increase in the amount of funding and 7% increase in the total number of announced deals vis-a-vis Q2-2019,
Alternatively, H1-2020 versus H1-2019 saw a 9% increase in the number of deals but a 14% decrease in the amount of funding.
Lemonade became the first ‘unicorn insurtech’ to debut on the NYSE. The company which had a $29 per-share target price for its debut, opened at $50.06.

Lemonade Insurance Goes Public — Photo source: Twitter

Q2-2020 by-the-numbers

The following are some select takeaways from the Q2-2020 report:

11 major deals valued at more than $40 million each were announced in Q2-2020. This number matches the record high of Q4-2019.
The U.S., U.K. and China continue to spearhead the majority of global insurtech activity.
Almost half, or 49%, of all insurtech deals this quarter took place in the U.S.
Property & casualty deals also comprise a majority of the funding. 68% of all announced deals involved in the P&C sector.
46% of P&C Insurtech deals involved B2B-focused companies, followed by 8% involving insurers.
Life & Health funding continues to grow as interest in life insurance and telemedicine accelerates.

Boston-based Insurtech Openly is featured as a case study in the latest issue

Finally, as the Quarterly insurtech report typically does, it selects a major area of how insurtech is transforming the space. This quarter, the report takes a look at property insurance as it relates to both technology as well as insurtech and includes five case studies of companies innovating within this space. Of note, the Boston-based Insurtech Openly, of which Agency Checklists was the first to profile, was included as the first case. The others profiles are of the following companies: handii, Arturo, Hometree, and Insurdata.

For those interested in accessing the latest Willis Tower Watson Insurtech Quarterly Report, it can be accessed on the Willis Tower Watson website.

For those interested in reading our profiles and updates on Openly, please refer to the articles below: