Money has been pouring into insurtechs, reaching a record of almost $2 billion in Q4 2019. Since 2018, investors have put more than $1 billion per quarter into companies seeking to shake up the industry. Not a single market segment has been untouched.
In 2020, the focus will be on innovating with insurtechs that enable incumbents. One report found that 96% of insurers said that they wanted to collaborate with insurtech firms in some way. Those surveyed favored partnerships and the software as a service (SaaS) approach to developing new solutions. There’s a rapidly growing list of insurer and insurtech partnerships.
See also: An Insurtech Reality Check
Insurtechs are developing to solve niche problems, and most aren’t aiming to tackle every vertical or every phase of the process. We all know the saying, jack of all trades, master of none. Insurtechs are focused on being the master at very specific parts of the value chain. Allianz has partnered with Flock, an insurtech startup offering pay-per-flight drone insurance; Aviva partnered with Digital Risks in the U.K. to develop insurance for startups and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs); and State Farm partnered with Cambridge Mobile Telematics to deliver usage-based insurance to drivers in the U.S.
One big driver of these partnerships is the inability of one company to do everything at once. Synergies can be realized when combining complementary skills. In Germany, Generali formed a partnership with Nest to offer homeowners insurance that leverages Nest’s smart home technology. Nest’s technology detects smoke and carbon monoxide and sends alerts to customer’s phones, reducing the risk for the insurer. Nationwide’s partnership with sure.com allows it to sell renters insurance through an app; Nationwide is still handing the underwriting and policy management separately.
More and more, incumbents are working with several insurtechs that integrate to bring change to every aspect of the industry.
Insurtechs bring the speed, agility and technological skills that incumbents need.
As Deloitte’s 2020 Insurance Outlook pointed out, “Despite some attempts to upgrade legacy marketing and distribution systems… carriers continue to struggle to drive more effective connections with consumers accustomed to online shopping and self-service.” Trying to bring legacy systems into the current age of digitization simply isn’t working, and, if incumbents try to build in-house, they face a longer time to market and higher costs.
Partnering with an insurtech company allows incumbents to quickly bridge the innovation gap, where technology changes faster than their ability to keep up. The estimated timeframe to develop solutions in-house is around 18 months, whereas you can be up and running in as little as three months if you partner with an insurtech. Moreover, incumbents that partner can respond more quickly to changing customer demands and lessen their risk of losing market share to a competitor.
See also: How Tech Makes Sector Safer, Smarter
For their part, insurtechs have realized that seeking to disrupt and replace incumbents can be too costly. To run a successful insurance company, you need significant capital, which is difficult for startups to raise. The insurance industry is also regulation-heavy, making it difficult for newcomers to find a place. Startups struggle to access the complex networks that support insurers. The industry presents too many barriers to independent disruption, but partnership benefits everyone involved.
Insurers are ready to innovate and have the data and distribution networks to support large-scale rollouts. Insurtechs have the technology and the agility to come into a large organization in the midst of change, work with its legacy systems, partner with insurtechs solving other problems in the supply chain and provide immediate value in moving them into the digital world. Both sides of the equation are ready and willing to realize the benefits of working together.
