Venture Capital funding update (May)
A summary of Venture Capital investments into InsurTech start-ups for May '20; UK and India stand out this month!
Hey folks! For those of you who follow me on LinkedIn, you might have seen my monthly InsurTech funding updates (since Feb ‘19); my aim here is not only to highlight who’s raised money (what I do on LinkedIn) but also share insights/metrics on these InsurTechs.
High level statistics - $382.43M raised across 16 disclosed deals in May 2020; 8x D2C (direct-to-consumer); 6x B2B (business-to-business) and 2x B2B2C.
Observation 1 - UK InsurTechs huddle together
5 deals in the UK in a single month! (~ 33% of funding volume); a similar phenomenon occurred in 02.20
An interesting mix of bicycle insurance (Bikmo; Series A backed by Hiscox Insurance), cyber (Envelop Risk; Series A), on-demand motor (ByMiles; Series B), renters (Urban Jungle; Pre-Series A) and pet (BoughtByMany; Series C).
BoughtByMany remains a breakout success - 200,000 insured pets (as at 05.20); the 12.19 figures were 130,000 insured pets [1]; this is serious growth for a late-stage venture!
My Tweet on UK InsurTechs announcing raises close to each in 02.20:
Observation 2 - Activity in India
3 deals in India might make May sound like an outlier; but, the Indian InsurTech ecosystem has been very active this year!
This month - Riskcovry (API infrastructure; Pre-Series A); GramCover (insurance for rural India; Pre-Series A) and MetaMorphSys Technology (Enterprise SaaS & middleware; Pre-Series A).
And, it’s not just funding; there’s more going on in the ecosystem:
Observation 3 - USA leads by funding volume
2 deals in USA accounted for 56% of the funding volume!
Pie Insurance (workers compensation specialist) raised a $127M Series B+ (note: $100M set aside in an acquisition vehicle to lap up smaller workers compensation specialists); Coalition (cyber insurance) raised a $90M Series C.
This has been the norm since Feb ‘19; USA is home to the “big money” InsurTechs (e.g. Root Insurance’s $365M Series E, Lemonade’s $300M Series D etc)
To wrap this up; I thought I’d benchmark May ‘20 versus the rest of CY 20:
PS - You can access the InsurTech VC funding data here
As always, I look forward to your comments, thoughts and constructive criticism. If you found this informative - please feel free to share and hit the “heart” button at the top/bottom of the mailer!