20/12/2023

Santalucía Impulsa presents the 2023 Spanish Ecosystem Insurtech Report

-Last November 13th Santalucía Impulsa had the opportunity to present the IV Insurtech Map of the Spanish Ecosystem, launched in October in collaboration with El Referente. The new edition, accompanied by a report, revealed a growth of 9.68% in initiatives and investment, the position of Spain in the top 10 of the countries with the highest investment in innovation and technology, an investment of 25 million euros in 2023 and the counting of 340 initiatives including Portugal and LATAM.The theme of the event was the presentation of the report, which was divided into two blocks, an analysis of the insurtech ecosystem and the debate 'Do insurtechs navigate between blue or red oceans? '. We'll tell you about it in detail.

Welcome by Ángel Uzquiza

El Director of Corporate Innovation of the Santalucía Group, Angel Uzquiza, welcomed all those attending the insurance company's headquarters and those who followed the event in streaming. Ángel began talking about the book The Blue Ocean Strategy, by Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne, because industries are navigating red oceans, with a lot of competition and little new value proposition. But the book talks about a business strategy called the blue ocean strategy, which advocates innovation and for the change of values and approach to the customer, generating new products and services. This is how businesses should be built. For this reason, for 4 years, Santalucía Impulsa launches every year, in collaboration with The Referent, the Insurtech Map, considered as a generator of blue oceans and new value propositions for the insurance sector. In fact, accompanying Ángel, he also participated in the presentation José Torrego, CEO of El Referente.

Insurtech Ecosystem Analysis

Once the introduction was over, the first part of the event began, focusing on the construction of the latest edition of the Insurtech Map and Report by Jorge Millan Astray, Project Manager in Corporate Innovation of Santalucía, and Manuel Gonzalez, editor of The Referent. The origin of this map comes, in part, from Emergence of the brand Santalucía Impulsa in 2016 and its relationship with the entrepreneurial and startup ecosystem, but focused on the field of insurance. The Insurtech Map is a static image, although, as Jorge said, the reality is that it is a “living” map, since it is constantly updated. This new edition, the IV Insurtech Map, is not only a still (and living) photo like the previous editions, but it has resulted in a complete report, which is the reason for the celebration of this event.

El Insurtech Report of the Spanish Ecosystem 2023 includes the methodology, the European landscape, the Insurtech Map itself, the global trends in the sector defined by numerous experts and, finally, a vision of the ecosystem in Portugal and Latin America.More than 340 startups, including startups of foreign origin but which operate in Spain, are the ones that make up this year's map, with those in the Product branch being the ones that stand out the most, followed by Infrastructure and Distribution. In addition, and as Manuel rightly stated, The Spanish insurtech ecosystem is among the 10 markets that invest the most in its development. Information that was backed up with data, since the graphs show that investment in the first half of 2023 is around 25 million euros, but, now that the end of the year is approaching, the figure has increased to 31 million in a total of 8 transactions. Therefore, it is estimated that the year will close with numbers close to those of 2021 (32 million euros). Thus, summarizing the most relevant data, briefly reviewing the main trends that have come to stay and the ecosystem experts who have collaborated on the map, and mentioning the novelty of the ecosystems of Portugal and Latin America, the first part of the event concluded.

Do insurtechs navigate between blue or red oceans?

The second part was a small debate in which great experts helped us to unravel Whether insurtechs really sail in blue or red oceans, in addition to clarifying how they see the current situation of the ecosystem from their perspective and experience.Óscar Paz, Managing Director of Insurtech Community Hub, Javier Sanchez, Investment Associate at Mundi Ventures and Emmanuel Djengue, Founder of Kaatch, discussed the evolution of the insurtech ecosystem, where it is going and what the future holds for us.

Óscar Paz explained that they exist different stages when a major change or transformation occurs:

The phase of denial of reality.
The resistance phase.
The exploration phase.
The commitment phase.

In the case of the insurtech sector, we are in the Exploration Stadium, where new insurers and brokers, partners, alliances, etc. are appearing. In the words of Javier Sánchez, the sector is growing and evolving positively, as reflected in the data from the Insurtech Map. Although there are still room for improvement and a long way to go. At this point, for Emmanuel it is essential that we are able to develop something that, in the sector in which we are in, is complex to replicate. Along these lines, the insurtech sector must find the disruptive element that makes it difficult for other actors to move in the same direction.