Santalucía Impulsa, the Santalucía Group's entrepreneurship and Open Innovation ecosystem, launches the second Insurtech map of the insurance sector, prepared together with the newspaper El Referente. Technological progress and the incidence of coronavirus have generated a new paradigm around the relationship and pretensions of people with their insurance. Insurtechs have become references for large insurance companies that want to adapt to new times.
After the first version of 2020, it can be seen that the development of the ecosystem has been affected by the pandemic. This second edition of the map shows a current picture of the most relevant players in the Insurtech environment, and is made up of 247 players and 7 Corporate Initiatives.
The map reveals that the 2020 was a decisive year for some startups linked to insurance, after COVID-19 and the push for digitalization. Up to 87 new initiatives have been incorporated into the map, validated by their interest, timeliness and quality of the solutions they present, with a fit into the insurance and healthcare world.
In this edition, Santalucía Impulsa brings together main players in the Insurtech ecosystem most active in Spain and, for the first time, some of the most prominent insurtechs in countries such as Brazil, Argentina, Mexico or Chile. In addition, it includes all the programs to support this ecosystem and, with a corporate nature, from other insurers.
This map divides insurtechs into five major sections: Product, Corporate Initiatives, Infrastructure, Distribution and Rest of the World. Within the Product, the growth of the Senior/Silver Economy category is significant, with an increase in projects ranging from 9 to 18. Most of these startups are associated with health, care, welfare and care for the elderly. The Product category is completed by startups belonging to the following sectors: Life, Deaths, Home, Travel, Health, Cars, Objects and others.
2020, a year marked by COVID-19
The impact of the pandemic has played an important role in technological transformation, digitalization and the adoption of new solutions by customers. According to the study Insurtech Global Outlook 21, developed by Everis and NTT Data, this new context has been characterized by faster digitalization, freeing up the arrival of new business models, new data sets and open platforms to meet new habits, values and consumer demands.
La reversal in the sector it has also changed with the pandemic:
- The total capital invested in 2020 was similar to that of 2019, but the number of transactions decreased by around 30%.
- Investment in more established markets declined (17% in the United States) and remained positive in developing ecosystems: 31% in Europe and 11% in Asia.
- The field of Health concentrated most of the investments (32%).
Ángel Uzquiza, Corporate Director of Innovation at Grupo Santalucía, explains that many insurtechs have stopped operating and are reinventing themselves or have disappeared, while others have experienced a major push consolidating themselves as essential and accelerating their scalability and interest on the part of insurers.
Optimism for 2021
Last year, total investment in insurtech registered the highest amount of global investment, exceeding 5.8 billion euros, according to KPMG experts. In the first quarter of 2021, investment in this sector on a global scale has reached a new high, 2.55 billion dollars corresponding to 146 transactions, according to the latest quarterly Insurtech report prepared by Willis Towers Watson.
The startups that have experienced an unparalleled boom and momentum and that will continue to grow are those that offer to insurers increased customer loyalty, new revenue streams and increased operational efficiency. Some of them are those dedicated to health, personal care, home care, teleperitation, process automation and all those that have to do with the digitalization of products and services.
In the sector, there is a increased interest in new technologies that insurtechs make available to the insurance value chain (AI, IoT, Cloud Computing, Virtual Assistants, Big Data...), since they promote digitalization and allow companies to approach the post-pandemic customer, who seeks efficiency, transparency, speed and agility.
Spain, up to the queue in investment
The reality of the Insurtech ecosystem in Spain is still far from the quantities and proportions that are handled in leading markets such as the United States. Since 2016, there have been barely fifteen investments in Spanish insurtech, which also rarely exceed two million euros; this represents a small part of the global market. So far in 2021, only one startup has successfully closed an investment round.
Ángel Uzquiza believes that The disruption in the insurance sector in Spain has not yet arrived, but that the country is faced with an exciting scenario with the arrival of the Sandbox.
Insurtechs are here to stay and now they'll have to find their place. With the support of traditional insurers, speed will increase and the transformation of proposals and new models will be more robust. Insurtechs will have to adapt to the speed of insurers because they need them, but the latter will have to test new proposals together with insurtechs because it gives them competitiveness and differentiation.
See the full report and startups at: Santalucía Impulsa launches the second Insurtech map of the insurance sector
