This week in insurance we are following insurtech SPAC IPOs, digital product launches and investment news. Here are the three things we learned this week:
- The insurtech IPO market seems to be gravitating towards using SPACs which are outpacing traditional IPOs as of late. Metromile’s SPAC IPO is finalized and will net the startup $230M of fresh capital to use for their pay per mile auto insurance. The homeowner startup Hippo is rumored to be exploring a similar SPAC IPO deal later this year that will value them at $5B. Others industries are using this approach to IPO and insurtechs are following trend. It allows them to reach the public market with less risk and regulatory hurdles.
- A launch for Chubb in France in partnership with Aon and newly acquired CoverWallet. The digital platform will shorten the time it takes to get quotes for commercial insurance and could be the first of many countries to expand this concept. Other carriers are making similar moves to launch digital commercial products.
- Nationwide announced they are increasing the size of their venture fund to $350M, this represents a large increase but is nominal considering their GWP though there is more where that came from. Meanwhile, Lemonade stock had another good week pushing their market cap above $9B, though one analyst thinks there is a bubble and competition from established players continues to be threat.
Thank you for continuing to follow us and for those of you who have provided feedback. We will continue these updates and are working on other content to share. Enjoy the Valentine’s / President’s Day weekend!