China internet giants in insurance. HealthSherpa picks up new funding. This week in insurance tech.
Property vision
Hi there,
Interesting to observe a number of startups in the insurance space go through multiple accelerator programs.
Are there any clear upsides to this or is this largely a waste of time? Reply back to this email with your thoughts and we’ll publish a few next week.
Zhong An IPO?
Last August, China’s first online insurer Zhong An Insurance launched a health insurance offering. This week, Zhong An said it counts 310,000 policyholders for its medical insurance offering “bought mainly by those aged 20-50 for coverage of up to CNY2 million.”
The move looks to be part of a broader push to diversify its product line. Zhong An’s original product, shipping returns insurance for Alibaba’s Taobao marketplace, accounted for 77% of its overall premiums in 2014.
In related news, Chinese regulators are reportedly considering fast-tracking a select number of tech companies, including Zhong An, to list their shares in Shanghai or Shenzhen. Zhong An said it was turning its back on a US or Hong Kong listing in December.
Q&A: Ryan Kottenstette, Cape Analytics
This week, Cape Analytics announced a partnership with NearMap to give the startup full access to NearMap’s US aerial imagery library. Cape Analytics, which raised $14M last October, uses computer vision and machine learning on geospatial imagery to generate structured property data for insurers and reinsurers.
We caught up with CEO Ryan Kottenstette to hear his thoughts on property inspections, advances in the remote imaging market, and whether some insurers will be left behind when it comes to tech adoption.