The Theme last week was China opening up its insurance market.

The Theme this week is InsurTech Upstarts at the Gate. The end of 2018 is coming. In the past we have often covered the moves from the big Insurance and Reinsurance Incumbents, who have been surprisingly agile and innovative given their size and legacy. This week we cover the moves by the VC funded startups.  

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For this week we bring you three stories illustrating the theme of InsurTech Upstarts at the Gate.

There was a lot of important Insurtech news to process this month. There were  many fund raising deals that did not make our constraint of 3 stories per week. These include Clyde raising $3m, MioAssicuratore $1.7m, Corvus $10m and ELEMENT $26m.

The three stories that were most significant were:

Story 1: Insurtechs launch new UK body

Extract, read more on Insurance Times:

“A group of 31 companies have banded together to launch InsurTech UK.

The core aim of the group is to support the UK insurtech sector and promote the benefits of insurtech.

The group held its inaugural meeting on Wednesday, with 20 members in attendance for the launch.

Members include Anorak; Azur; Bikmo; Bought By Many; Buzzmove; Canopy; Claim Technology; Concirrus; CoVi Analytics; Drover; Equipseme; Floodflash; Hokodo; Honcho; Kasko; Konsileo; Laka; Marmalade; Meet Sherpa; Urban Jungle; Pluto; Polaris; PolicyCastle; Shepherd; So-sure; Tapoly; Track My Risks; Worry and Peace; Wrisk Yulife.”

UK has always been a major market for insurance with numerous renowned insurers. But when it comes to InsurTech, it seems a little behind, not only in global but also in Europe. With startups forming up a union, maybe we can expect a super InsurTech force in UK in next a few years.

Story 2: Insurtech Oyster Opens up Its Pay-as-You-Go Workers’ Comp Model in California

Extract, read more on Insurance Journal:

“A new insurtech wants to provide pay-as-you-go workers’ compensation to as many small businesses in California as possible, and it hopes to use the momentum it’s built following a quiet launch in the East earlier this year to do just that.

Oyster Insurance, which started providing workers’ comp to 70-plus classes of business in New York and New Jersey without much fanfare or media coverage in January, began operating in California this week.”

Oyster’s expansion in California has already attracted a dozen companies to sign deals with them in a few days’ time. They have licenses in 26 states and plans to get more in 2019. So they are obviously only in the beginning.

Story 3: Insurance startup Bright Health raises $200M at ~$950M valuation

Extract, read more on Techcrunch:

“A flurry of digital-first insurers are betting they can surpass industry incumbents with a little help from technology and a lot of help from venture capitalists.

The latest to land a massive check is Bright Health, a Minneapolis-headquartered provider of affordable individual, family and Medicare Advantage healthcare plans in Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, New York City, Ohio and Tennessee. The company, founded by the former chief executive officer of UnitedHealthcare Bob Sheehy; Kyle Rolfing, the former CEO of UnitedHealth-acquired Definity Health; and Tom Valdivia, another former Definity Health executive, has brought in a $200 million Series C.”

US InsurTech startups are growing both in numbers and scales. There have already been 94 deals in 2018 globally and 2 billion USD raised in US.

The big raise this week is from USA, from the massive broken Health Insurance market.

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Zarc Gin is an analyst for Warp Speed Fintech, a Fintech, especially InsurTech-focused Venture Capital based in China.

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