Record insurtech investments in Q1 2019: Willis Towers Watson

The first quarter of 2019 witnessed the highest number of insurtech investments, with 85 deals attracting a total value of $1.42 billion, according to the latest  report by Willis Towers Watson.

Q1 2019 was the third consecutive quarter in which more than $1 billion in funding was secured.

Nearly 54 percent of these deals were outside the US, marking a continuing trend. Deals in the UK increased by 50 percent, and in the US by 44 percent. However, the count in China fell by 38 percent in the quarter.

Overall, compared to the fourth quarter of 2018, the deal count increased by 35 percent, although the total funding decreased by 11 percent.

WTW noted that insurtech investors worldwide executed the highest number of transactions during this period.

Additionally, the opening three months witnessed the highest number of property & casualty (P&C) transactions, and the highest volume of Series B and Series C funding rounds.

Around two-third of investments were in Seed and Series A rounds. And the number of P&C transactions increased by 37 percent.

“The sheer volume of hopeful InsurTech companies and hype is becoming increasingly difficult to rationalize," said Andrew Johnston, global head of insurTech at Willis Re. "and one could argue that much of the space is akin to the fable of the emperor’s new clothes."

"We are seeing, however, that a number of InsurTechs are already adding some genuine value to our industry. We remain pragmatic about where in the value chain we believe this can be achieved."

Johnston added: “Our quarterly InsurTech reports for 2019 will focus on the four major functional areas of insurance, exploring the activities required to make each work, and how technology could be applied to improve those processes. We continue to believe that success for any InsurTech must follow that bottom-up approach, rather than targeting reinvention from the top down.”