Top 2016 deals, partnerships & hires

Hi there,

Over the course of this year, we’ve tracked over 170 investments to insurance tech startups globally and dozens of both meaningful and exploratory partnerships between startups and (re)insurers.

We’ve updated our ongoing post covering the largest deals in the space, as well as what we saw on the partnership and hiring front in 2016 YTD. See the full recap.

Today, online homeowners and renters insurance carrier Lemonade announced that it had filed for licenses to operate in 46 states. As more startups who raised capital this year turn to product launches, we look forward to covering how consumers respond in 2017.

Conflicted

Earlier this week, Zhong An Insurance reportedly scrapped its plans for an IPO in Hong Kong or the US. One reason for the change of plans could be Zhong An’s own backer: Ant Financial.

At play is Ant’s controlling stake in the China unit of insurer Cathay Insurance. Ant is jointly developing insurance products with Cathay that look to be “in the same field” as Zhong An.

Just two weeks ago, Ant executives were in Silicon Valley as Ant looks to lay the groundwork for its own IPO. Meanwhile, Zhong An, which has sold more than 4B policies to 400M+ customers, was last valued at $8B and appears to now be focusing on a China listing.

Guidewire’s busy 2016

Guidewire’s IPO in 2012 put it atop the largest venture-backed exits in insurance, but since its IPO, the P&C software provider has primarily shied away from M&A – until 2016.

This week’s $160M acquisition of ISCS marked its third M&A deal of the year. Guidewire also made its first strategic investment in 2016 to Trov, currently operating in the UK and Australia.

Call for submissions

Everyone reading this newsletter is much smarter than us, so we’re compiling submissions for our next issue from you on the following questions:

• What is your top prediction for insurance tech startups for 2017?
• On the same topic, what did you expect to see in 2016 that didn’t pan out?

We realize responses will be broad. Reply back to this email and we’ll publish as many as we can.

Have a great rest of the year and a very happy holidays. We’ll see you in 2017.

Matt
@mlcwong