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Greetings Friends. A lot going on in the insurance industry as we bring January to a close. This week we are following Kin/Root news, Ascend Fundraise and many earnings reports. Here are the three things we learned: |
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More Insurtech Tea Leaves to Read There were a couple of news stories this week that enforced themes in the insurtech carrier space. Another IPO was shelved with Kin announcing they were terminating their SPAC IPO due to ‘unfavorable market conditions’. Further signs that the public market is not the place for these companies to go until they show profits. Fresh off a week of negative headlines Root announced a $300M leading facility with BlackRock that also gives them the right to purchase a 2% stake for $9/share. BlackRock mentions the Carvana relationship and the combination of their stakes could be an exit for Root shareholders. |
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Ascend Raises $30 Million Ascend, an insurance payments platform, completed a Series A fundraise of $30M this week. They are looking to modernize insurance payments with a holistic look at how the industry functions. There is room for innovation in payments and the insurance industry could benefit from Ascend’s mission putting them more on par with the banking industry. They will use the capital to hire and further develop products and industry reach. |
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Many Earnings Reports to Digest Earnings season picked up steam this week with several announcements from WR Berkley who saw big premium growth and returns on equity, brokers AJ Gallagher and Marsh both posting big revenue increases and the latter adding 6000 new associates. RLI posts strong results and a combined ratio to envy. There would have been good news all around but Progressive previewed their results with a substantial drop in Net Income. More to come next week where we should continue to see mostly strong results with commercial focused carriers but potentially a mixed bag with personal lines. |
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