The Insurtech Report of the Spanish Ecosystem 2024 of Santalucía Impulsa and The Benchmark

Santalucía Impulsa, the Entrepreneurship and Open Innovation ecosystem of Grupo SANTALUCÍA, has presented the Insurtech Ecosystem Report 2024, evolution of the Insurtech Map, a report that analyzes the development of technology companies in the insurance sector.The document is framed within the National Report on Tech and Innovative Companies, prepared together with The Referent, a leading medium in startups and innovation. This has involved the participation of numerous companies from different sectors, among which Santalucía Impulsa stands out as the main partner.

Data from the National Insurtech Ecosystem Report

The Insurtech Report 2024 reveals which sector insurtech provides close to 70 companies, 1,100 jobs and a turnover of more than 100 million euros. In addition, he points out that In Spain there are already more than 250 startups and scaleups that bring innovation, new developments and business windows to the insurance world. Of all of them, nearly 70 companies (37 startups, 15 scaleups and 16 SMEs) would be considered purely insurtech, as their main activity is to provide coverage and insurance. Together, these companies have generated more than 1,100 jobs and a turnover of more than 100 million euros, which has meant, on average, 16 jobs and more than 1.5 million euros invoiced per company.

Ángel Uzquiza, Director of Innovation at Grupo Santalucía, and whose analysis is included in this report, states that”the Spanish insurtech sector, in constant evolution, is picking up pace. The arrival of Generative Artificial Intelligence and other advanced technologies brings about a paradigm shift, creating new opportunities. Insurers and startups must work together, aligning strategies and taking advantage of technological capabilities to generate new use cases, this is one of the most direct paths to sector innovation”.

The evolution of investment in insurtech

Investment in insurtech companies in Spain has increased by more than 10 million euros in 3 years, rising from 20.5 million in 2020 to 31.7 million in 2023. By autonomous communities, Madrid is the leader and is in first place, followed by Barcelona, Málaga and Valencia:

• Madrid: investment of 29.7 million euros (490 employees, 21 startups, 10 scaleups and 7 SMEs).
• Barcelona: investment of 17.2 million euros (256 employees, 14 startups, 9 scaleups and 1 SME).
• Malaga: investment of 500,000 euros (10 employees, 3 startups and 3 scaleups).
• Valencia: investment of 3.5 million euros (48 employees, 3 startups and 2 scaleups).

The evolution of investment in the insurtech sector is based on a good volume, since the average working capital exceeds 4.5 million euros. As for the funding rounds, among those that have been closed in the sector, the Cobee, a Spanish startup specialized in profit management, recently acquired by Pluxee (Sodexo). It was 40 million euros and took place in 2022. Other protagonists of the funding rounds have been Fintonic, a startup that offers insurance services; Life5 (formerly Getlife), between 5 and 10 million, or Asistensi, BDEO or Coverwallet.

The gender gap in the founding of startups according to the Insurtech Report

The report prepared by Santalucía Impulsa and El Referente also highlights the existing gender gap despite the notable growth in the number of technology companies in Spain. Out of a total of 122 people who founded insurtech companies, only 11 are women, which corresponds to 9% of the total. The other 111, 91%, are men. In the tech sector, on the other hand, the female percentage is almost double and exceeds 17% (compared to 83% male). In absolute terms, this translates to 1,946 women vs 9,474 men. Of these women, 1,308 undertake together with other women, while 545 do so in collaboration with men. The regional analysis reveals that the autonomous communities with the highest percentage of women founders are Extremadura: (21.52%), Navarra (20.32%) and the Basque Country (19.75%). While the regions with the lowest female presence are Castilla-La Mancha (10.26%) and La Rioja (10.91%).

The creation of the first insurtech or insurance sector report in Spain

For the preparation of this report, Santalucía Impulsa has provided its data sources, which have been shared with the counterparts of The Referent with the objective of marking a milestone: the creation of the first insurance or insurtech sector report which collects all the sectoral data of the ecosystem in Spain. Among the most relevant data, the employability and economic impact of tech companies in the region, the innovation poles, the main investment operations carried out or the predominant productive sectors stand out. Over the years, as stated by Ángel Uzquiza, Santalucía Impulsa”has accelerated 31 startups in the insurance world, of which eight have been implemented. Accelerated startups have received a total investment of more than 24.3 million euros. More than 170 entrepreneurs have passed through the program, and 30 projects have been validated, of which 15 have been accelerated and, of these, seven have been implemented. Our acceleration program, Santalucía Impulsa Startups, is now seven years old”.

The presentation of the Ecosystem Startup platform

At the Insurtech Ecosystem Report 2024 event, the creation of the platform was also announced Startup Ecosystem, the largest database of startups and investors in Spain and Portugal and in which Santalucía Impulsa also participates. This tool allows analyze and monitor more than 7,000 Spanish technology companies, providing detailed information on the founders, sectors, types of companies, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) they meet, year of foundation and other relevant data. In total, the platform brings together information from 7,028 Spanish companies, 41 Portuguese startups, 286 investors and 308 Business Angels, and currently has more than 2,000 operations carried out.

Conclusions of the National Tech Companies Report

The National Report on Tech and Innovative Companies in Spain by El Referente is the first report on the tech ecosystem and startups in the country. It is a publication of more than 200 pages that compiles all the data from technology companies, startups and scaleups by cumulative, segmented by sector, autonomous communities, cumulative investment in tech companies in Spain since 2016 and an analysis of the gender gap. These are the main findings:

• Spain has more than 7,000 active technology companies. Of these, 3,640 are startups and 1,185 are scaleups.
• These companies generate 99,919 direct jobs.
• Its economic impact exceeds 11 billion euros.
• In Spain there are 3,640 startups according to the Startups Act.
• Scaleups generate an economic impact of 9,762 million euros per year.
• In Catalonia and in the Madrid Community, 53% of tech companies reside, so they lead national technological ecosystems.
• The health sector is in the lead and is the only one that exceeds 500 tech companies.
• Women represent 17.03% of company founders.

Access the Insurtech Ecosystem Report 2024 de Santalucía Impulsa and The Referent in the Sectors and Technologies section of the National Report on Tech and Innovative Companies.