new 53-pg insurance tech briefing

Earlier this week, Willis Towers Watson, in collaboration with CB Insights, released its new quarterly insurance tech briefing for Q2’17.

The new report dives into the future of claims management featuring Q&As with a number of TPAs and loss adjusters including Crawford & Company, Genpact, and Cunningham Lindsey as well as a case study of recent initiatives by Allstate on the claims side.

In five years, 2/3rds of the claims executives polled believe 10-20% of P&C claims will be settled on a fully automated basis.

The report also lists out all the partnerships, investments and tech startup deals by (re)insurers through Q2’17. Funding to insurance tech startups rose to $985M in Q2’17 largely on the back of investments to startup insurers like Bright Health, Clover Health, Singapore Life, Gryphon Insurance, and Acko General Insurance.

Meanwhile, strategic investments into tech companies by (re)insurers has topped 55 deals in the first half of 2017.

Get the full report here.

New life insurance startup raises funding

Bestow, a Dallas-based digital life insurance startup, which works with the North American Company for Life and Health Insurance, raised $3.1M in seed funding according to a filing caught by CB Insights.

The startup is co-founded by Jonathan Abelmann, previously a co-founder of single family home leasing operator Invitation Homes (NYSE: INVH).

Travelers Alan Schnitzer weighs in on new small commercial entrants

On Travelers second quarter earnings call, CEO Alan Schnitzer had this to say on new entrants, both from larger insurers and startups, in the small commercial segment:

“I think different competitors and others are at different stages of their engagement in the marketplace…There is a lot of rhetoric out there. How much business is actually being transacted on that basis and how much is aspirational from the perspective whether that you are saying is something that is worth looking into. But I would say that we are as engaged as anybody on – in all those areas and as aspirational as everybody in all those areas.”

As of today, there are at least six (re)insurers or corporate VC arms backing small commercial insurance distribution startups including Starr, Markel Ventures, Hiscox, XL Innovate, Munich Re/HSB Ventures, and Nationwide Ventures. This doesn’t include older startups that have since entered small commercial distribution.

New cyber risk report

Lloyd’s of London teamed up with Cyence to publish a new joint report on the financial impact of certain cyber scenarios and the state of cyber coverage. The full report is available here.

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InsureTech Connect 2017

Our newsletter subscribers can access a special rate for $300 off your ticket ($1095 versus $1395) at InsureTech Connect, the industry’s largest insurtech event – bringing together more than 3,000 entrepreneurs, investors and insurance industry incumbents from across the globe.

The official ITC speaker lineup and agenda has been announced and is available here.
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Have a great weekend,

Matt
@mlcwong