Insurtechs attract record investment in Q1: CB Insights

The first three months of 2021 was a record quarter for insurtech investment activity, according to research by CB Insights.

Insurtech startups raised over $2.5 billion across 146 deals, CB Insights said. This record level of funding represents a 180 percent year on year increase, the research said, and a 22 percent increase compared to the final quarter of 2020.

The number of deals also grew significantly in Q1, being up 52 percent year on year and up 42 percent quarter on quarter.

Research also revealed a record number of mega-rounds, occurring earlier on in the funding cycle, CB Insights said. Eight companies secured over $1.1 billion in funding in Q1, roughly 44 percent of total funding raised.

“While historically late-stage companies (series D and later) typically land mega-round deals, this quarter, the majority of companies were raising series C growth rounds,” CB Insights said. This potentially indicates expanding funding requirements earlier on in the cycle, froth in the markets, or both, it added.

Meanwhile, the research also showed the increasingly international reach of insurtechs, with Q1 seeing the most geographically diverse set of early-stage startups in a single quarter. In all there were insurtech startups in 24 countries, including Bangladesh, Estonia, Brazil, Nigeria, and the UAE.

Insurtechs raised investment in 38 different countries in the whole of 2020, and in 29 countries in 2016.

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