What is Insurtech
Insurtech—short for “insurance technology”—is a broad category of constantly changing technologies used in the insurance industry. Any technology that’s used by an insurance company to increase the efficiency of its operations could be considered insurtech. Insurtech can be any new technology introduced to insurers’ operations to save on costs or streamline processes. Insurtech is a subdivision of fintech—new technology introduced to improve the operations and bottom line for finance companies. Like fintech, insurtech refers to a wide range of technology, so it’s difficult to pin down any one defining characteristic or application. Insurtech may also refer to companies that produce insurtech. From 2010 to 2019—roughly considered to be the first nine years of insurtech—some $16.5 billion have flowed to startup companies in the insurtech field. source: thebalancesmb.com
Categories of Insurtech
Source: dashdevs.com
Direct Insurers / Tied Agents offer personalized, flexible, and cost-efficient packages with typically lower coverage and premiums. Such insurtech firms adopt technology innovations like IoT or Data Science, and their products can be easily purchased via a website or mobile app. In this category, you can find BIMA, Metromile, Trov, ROOT, Cuvva, and NEOS.
Insurance Management solutions focus on convenient tracking and administration of all your insurance policies and contracts in one place. Process-improvement insurtech products are FinanceFox, Brolly, Knip, Rentablo, and GetSafe.
Marketplaces / Aggregators are online platforms with numerous insurance products and companies that allow users to compare prices and terms. Examples include PolicyBazaar, CoverHound, Insurify, PolicyGenius, and Coverfox.
Peer-to-Peer / Cashback insurtech solutions allow individuals to team up and club their premiums together to hedge against risk and commonly derive benefits regarding premium proceeds. Some examples are Friendsurance, Guevara, Lemonade, Uvamo, and insPeer.
Sales, Marketing, and Engagement category comprises technology insurance companies that offer focused tools to industry-related third parties, including but not limited to brokers and insurers, mainly in the form of API or SaaS business model. These process modifiers utilize technologies to improve certain parts of the value chain leading to better user experiences and more fair pricing. Here you can meet such big names as Zywave, Welltok, KASKO, CoVi Analytics, Zipari, Qover, Dynamis, LifeDrip, and Sureify
Product Insurance – These companies offer insurance/warranties for products that you purchase, from tech gadgets to diamonds.
Life, Home, Property & Casualty Insurance – These companies offer life, home, and property & casualty insurance, as well as other kinds of insurance such as renters, disability, and marriage insurance.
Reinsurance – These companies provide insurance for other insurance companies.
Insurance Data/ Intelligence– These companies collect, process, and analyze data analytics and business intelligence for the insurance industry.
Insurance Investors/ Education – These companies are investment firms that specifically invest and incubate new insurance companies, as well as resources that give information about how insurance works
Auto Insurance – These companies offer car insurance, including car telematics products which detect your mileage and driving behavior to customize your insurance plan.
Enterprise Insurance – These companies offer insurance plans for businesses, startups, freelancers, etc.
P2P Insurance – These companies offer peer-to-peer insurance, in which a group of policyholders jointly pay for the insurance of an item that they mutually own, share, or rent (a car, a house, media equipment, etc).
Insurance Infrastructure/ Backend – These companies help insurance companies with their day-to-day operations, including CRM for agents and lawyers, communication tools, claim filing tools, etc.
Health/ Travel insurance – These companies offer health or travel insurance, either for individuals or for businesses.
Insurance Comparison/Marketplace – These companies serve as a marketplace for consumers to buy insurance of any kind (car to home to health), or compare different insurance providers. These are 3rd party companies that don’t offer insurance plans themselves, but act as a brokerage agent between insurance providers and consumers.
Insurance User Acquisition – These companies help insurance companies acquire and manage new leads and clients.
Consumer Insurance Management Platforms – These companies offer platforms that enable consumers to manage their insurance and claims, including mobile apps that allow them to file claims right at the spot of the car accident.
OPEN INSURANCE
Open insurance is a new way of doing business that enables insurers to boost revenues, increase efficiencies, gain business partners and reach many more consumers. It requires carriers to open their data resources to other organizations and to share and consume data and services from many sources and across lots of industries. This allows insurers to create new value propositions, generate fresh revenue streams and deepen their relationships with customers.
Open insurance business models must address the three essential functions of a data enterprise—consume, share and collaborate.
