Investment in the insurtech sector this year has already surpassed 2018, according to Willis Towers Watson.
Figures from Willis Towers Watson that investment exceeded $1.2 billion (£936 million) for the fifth consecutive quarter-year period in Q3 2019.
Eighty-three deals with a total value of $1.5 billion (£1.17 billion) were announced in Q3 2019, up 6% over the previous three months to reach the third highest quarter for global insurtech investment to date.
Deal numbers were up 20%, and marked the first quarter that investments in B2B insurtech firms outnumbered investments in distribution-focused ventures.
The value of investment in property and casualty-focused firms is continuing to rise, supported by three deals backing Root Insurance, Hippo and PolicyBazaar.
In total, $4.36 billion (£3.4 billion) has been deployed to insurtech companies across 239 transactions. That already marks a 5% increase from the total amount of investment in all of 2018. Deal activity is on pace to beat last year’s total, according to Willis Towers Watson.
Willis Re’s global head of insurtech, Dr Andrew Johnston, said:“The continuing rise in insurtech investment acknowledges the enormous role technology has to play in our industry, but we need to avoid becoming a sector jaded and frustrated by it.”
He added: “Insurtech’s greatest achievement to date has been to act like a defibrillator on the heart of the insurance industry. People across the sector now talk more positively about the use of technology. Some see it as the potential saviour of a broken system.”
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