2017
Acquired. (1) Aetna by CVS. (2) Digital insurance manager treefin AG by German insurer W&W. (3) London-based Arium by Verisk Analytics. (4) Myriad Development by CoreLogic. (5) Healix Risk Rating by Verisk. (6) Mobile-banking startup Zenbanx by SoFi. (7) Blink by CPPGroup. (8) CCC Information Services by Advent International. (9) Mobileye by Intel. (10) Simply Business by Travelers. (11) Progressive Direct by Hollard. (12) Marias Technology by Haines Family. (13) ONE by Wefox. (14) RiskMatch by Vertafore. (15) Automatic Labs by SiriusXM. (16) OneBeacon by Intact. (17) Wells Fargo commercial insurance by USI. (18) Digital home-moving services platform MOVU By Baloise. (19) InforcePro by Covr Financial Technologies. (20) State National by Markel. (21) Cyence by Guidewire. (22) Networked Insights by AmFam. (23) Generali PanEurope by Life Company Consolidation Group. (24) Drippler by Asurion. (25) The Warranty Group by Assurant. (26) Part of AmTrust warranty business was sold to Madison Dearborn Partners. (27) And there’s digital insurance manager Knip that merged with Netherlands-based comparison-software provider Komparu to form a new company called the Digital Insurance Group.
Got Some Excited: Northwestern Mutual launched Northwestern Mutual Future Ventures, with plans to invest $50 million in tech startups that have the power to transform how consumers experience and achieve financial security. Swiss insurer Helvetia launched a VC fund called Helvetia Venture Fund and declared intent to invest $55 million in startups. ManchesterStory announced its official launch (and invested in Groundspeed and Matic Insurance). QBE opened a digital innovation hub and set aside $50 million for insurtech-investments (it invested in Cytora and RiskGenius). Aflac announced that its VC is open for business.
Expanded. Sure partnered with Chubb to launch an app-based car rental insurance product for US customers. Expanded in Ridesharing. GEICO. Grange Insurance. MAPFRE. Mercury Insurance. Plymouth Rock. State Farm.
Restructured. AXA Singapore merged its general and life insurance entities. AIG transitioned into General Insurance, Life & Retirement, and a stand-alone, technology-
Launched in Life. 51 People Commitment. Atidot. Fabric. Indie. Digital MGA Ladder that began in California and is now live in 44 states. Leap Life. Legacy Life by Missouri Farm Bureau. Singapore Life. Tomorrow. Troo (a JV between Ageas and EastWest Bank). Launched in P&C: Acko. At-Bay. Bridger. CarDekho. ETinsure. Evari. Fair.com. Fizzy. Flink. Flock. Friday. Gavin. GUARDHOG. Homelyfe. Indio. Inlet. Jerry. Jetty. Kin Insurance. My Insurer. MyGearVault. Turkish digital insurer Quick Sigorta. Muno. Rhino. Toffee. Urban Jungle. Zego. Zeguro. And Let’s Not Forget: Click2Sure in South Africa. Digit. GetSafe. InsureFirst in India. MesLeads in France. SureBuddy in Uganda, and FilingMate in Boston.
In Business. Markel partnered with Next Insurance. Oscar health insurer debuted Oscar for Business. Ask Kodiak partnered with TechCanary and Bold Penguin. Bunker advanced beyond beta. Xagent announced a new board member (and another one).
Slipped. Anthem-Cigna $54 billion deal. Fidelity & Guaranty Life and Anbang deal. Phoenix & China’s Yango deal. Pivoted. Beam dental – now also offers vision benefits, GetSafe – an agency turned insurer, Trov – mobile-only to mobile-first (now available via web), Metromile introduced ridesharing coverage to later take it away, and Freebird – from targeting travel consumers to mainly targeting travel management companies.
Introduced a Chatbot. (1) Ask Arvi. (2) DHFL Pramerica. (3) Finaeo. (4) Haven Life. (5) Hippo. (6) HDFC Life. (7) Income. (8) Quotemehappy. (9) RISK Verzekeringen. Introduced a Chatbot to Later Take it Away. Next Insurance.
Tracked You. Liberty Mutual with its driving score app HighwayHero; to name one. And…Root, but only initially (recall: the mobile-only auto insurer looks to insure only good drivers so it asks them to download an app, and drive for 2-3 weeks so that Root can assess how great they are on the road before it offers them a personalized insurance quote). Tracked It. Europ Assistance Italy (part of Generali) is offering a new policy called “Bag Track” that’s coupled with LugLoc’s smart tracker; a smart device that fits in one’s luggage and connects to a smartphone app to track the location of the luggage. Speaking of smart – UK-based digital insurance platform PolicyCastle offers customers who have qualifying smart home devices installed in their homes discounts on the cost of their home insurance premiums.
On Fire. Liberty Mutual (look), which set Lulo to flames. On to Something. Also Liberty Mutual, which teamed up with Volvo to offer insurance at a uniform flat fee, no matter the customer profile, through a subscription service. On a similar note: Book by Cadillac offers ‘vehicle use, insurance, and ‘reasonable maintenance’ for $1,800 a month – insurance is managed by Chubb’s ESIS. On to You. With schemes like pay as you fly, pay as you drive, pay as you owe, pay by the mile, pay by the second, pay by the hour, pay per month, and pay per product.
On Household Brands.
Amazon – Is this the look of a man that wants to enter insurance? I didn’t think so…and yet, here’s the list of insurers offering an Alexa skill: Allstate. Aviva. Farmer
Facebook Messenger plugin – Aviva’s a fan.
Lyft befriended CSAA Insurance Group to offer people who are going through a claim an option to receive Lyft credit while their vehicle is in the repair shop. Lyft also partnered with Root and BCBS.
BMW announced a free service available to its car owners in Germany called CarData, that allows them to have control over key vehicle data and share that data as they see fit with third parties. Same BMW that’s collaborating with Friday insurer on its UBI offering.
UPS Capital (of UPS) entered cyber insurance (and so did Sompo Holdings).
Yamaha Motor Australia announced the acquisition of Yamaha Motorcycle and Marine Insurance (YMI) from NM Insurance to create a new division called Yamaha Motor Insurance Australia.
Uber sold US leasing business to Assurant partner, Fair.
Google’s Nest, the hardware, software, and thermostat, befriended Generali via its German D2C brand CosmosDirekt that is now offering a 50% discount on a Nest Protect smoke and carbon monoxide alarm in the form of a Nest coupon code.
And then there’s the latest from Trov, which partnered with Waymo to insure passengers who ride Waymo’s self-driving cars, a fleet of 100 cars, with plans to add 500 more.
The Big C (Claims). IBM Watson partnered with Japanese life insurer Fukoku Mutual for a system that will process medical payment assessment. Allstate partnered with Carpe Data to apply predictive online data to claims.
Said Hello. Travel Insured International partnered with Sitata. May Say Hello. Facebook-backed company Life360 may enter insurance. Said Goodbye. Harken Health. Guevara. Guild. Isaac Re. Inchain. Kevinsured.com. TikkR. Uvamo. Valora Life. Wells Fargo (to insurance). YourPoncho. Possibly Margo. And more.
Said goodbye to AMS 360 – Tony Visser.
Said goodbye to GEICO: Erica.
Said goodbye to Progressive: Doug Smith Jr.
Said goodbye to P2P – Lemonade.
What Else? Aviva CEO gave insurance a D (think: dysfunctional). Swiss Re went by the sea (bullish on parametric insurance). AXA stepped up post Trump’s travel ban.
Moving On.
Zero BS. Zero deductible. Zero Term.
One fellowship by INGUARD.
One astronaut dog. One tour bus for dogs. One Arity baby. One awesome AI campaign (by SafeAuto). One bride.
3 is a magic number (Aviva Digital Garage; now in London, Singapore and Canada, Sompo Digital Lab; now in Tokyo, Silicon Valley and Israel).
At least 5 players in the ‘selfie to life insurance quote/estimate’ space.
B3i is 38 members strong.
Solartis released its first Blockchain microservice; a Proof of Insurance API.
18 is the number of fraud algos Lemonade has.
Singapore-based digital broker PolicyPal counted 8,000 users.
Segurize counted 16,000 users.
Coverfox counts 30K policies monthly.
$61,465 is the amount of money GEICO recovered on one insurance claim thanks to social data.
Lemonade counted 70,000 policies.
GoBear counted 5 million users.
Over $8 million in fines were paid by Zenefits.
How low can some go? Phone battery insurance on blockchain.
Where is one headed? INSHUR, to UK.
For too new, see Setoo.
For high tech, see Anlink Zhong An Information Technology Service.
Now, go and play.