Fabric is a new insurtech startup that is looking to focus on new and expecting parents; they currently have two offerings, Fabric Instant and Fabric Premium; Fabric Instant is an accidental death policy which you can obtain in two minutes with minimal information and Fabric Premium is their 20 year policy which requires a checkup; they recently raised a $2.5 million seed round from Bessemer Venture Partners for their launch and continued product development; policies are currently underwritten by Vantis Life Insurance at $6 per $100,00 of coverage. Source
The B3i blockchain insurance consortium was founded in October 2016 to focus on blockchain-based solutions for the insurance industry; it began with five companies and has now announced the addition of 10 new members; overall members of the consortium believe the technology has the potential to streamline paperwork and reconciliations, accelerate information and money flow, and significantly improve auditability; the consortium was created to develop a common set of standards and procedures around these initiatives; B3i plans to release an initial report on its research by June 2017. Source
Sources report that Chinese online property and casualty insurance company Zhong An is planning for an initial public offering (IPO) in China; the firm was founded by Alibaba's Jack Ma, Tencent's Pony Ma and Ma Mingzhe from Ping An Insurance Group of China; a primary product for the firm is e-commerce shipping insurance which accounts for approximately 50% of the business; currently the firm's major shareholders include Ant Financial with 16% and Tencent Holdings Ltd. with 12%; in 2015 it reported a valuation of $8 billion and it currently plans to raise an additional 2 billion yuan ($290 million) to help it prepare for the IPO. Source
The LendIt Insurtech Forum was a lively discussion featuring Lemonade CEO Daniel Schreiber and Adam Kerns of the American Insurance Association, moderated by Thalia Smith of Deloitte; the discussion centered around insurance innovation, the effect of insurtech on traditional insurers and the current regulatory environment; panelists also answered audience questions and discussed a range of technological advancements that incumbents and insurtech startups are using to improve the customer experience; to download the recording of this interesting discussion please click here.
The LendIt Insurtech Forum is today at 4 PM EST; the Forum will help to introduce the LendIt audience to one of the most innovative companies in property and casualty insurance, and a leading insurance association focused on this innovation trend; Lemonade CEO Daniel Schreiber and Adam Kerns of the American Insurance Association will be interviewed by Thalia Smith of Deloitte about innovation currently taking place and how these new companies are affecting the traditional players in the insurance market; register here. Source
Brickell Capital Finance will now offer its healthcare clients Liquid FSI Convert2Pay services through its sales representatives; Liquid FSI Convert2Pay allows healthcare professionals to upload healthcare claims and receive payouts; the firm has a range of solutions for healthcare claim payouts and also offers healthcare industry lending services. Source
According to ThreatMetrix, digital fraud has been costing insurance companies approximately $250 billion annually in recent years; data from ThreatMetrix also reports that fraudsters have compromised over five billion personal identities, 1 in 10 insurance accounts are fraudulent and 3% to 5% of all claims in the US are fraudulent which adds approximately $400 to the cost of a family's insurance per year; with these statistics, development in advanced fraud solutions is also becoming important for insurtech; machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) are the main drivers behind many of the industry's fraud detection solutions and the AI capabilities are expected to gain even more traction as additional solutions evolve. Source
Haven Life was the first insurance company to offer a life insurance product to its clients completely online; Liz Langlois from Haven Life provides insight on the industry and firm's evolution in a blog post; also discusses factors for consideration in choosing a life insurance partner. Sponsored Blog Post
Insturech platform Hippo provides home insurance; it has now announced a new partnership with Elafris to help it develop a virtual agent chatbot powered by artificial intelligence to provide virtual customer service for its clients; in comments regarding the partnership Jake Diner, founder and CEO of Elafris, said, "Our virtual agent technology allows insurance providers to radically transform the way they acquire new customers, boost their customer reach and engagement, increase conversion rate and customer satisfaction, and ultimately grow their business faster and more efficiently."; Elafris is a leading provider of artificial intelligence solutions for insurance companies and is currently working with major national insurance providers. Source
CB Insights shares the total number of startup investments by (re)insurers since 2012; (re)insurers have taken an increased interest in investing in insurtech companies with an estimated 135 investments in 2016; some of the most recent insurtech deals spanning many verticals of insurance are shared below. Source
