3 Things – SVB Aftermath, Fairmatic $46M, Acquisition & Launches

Hello Friends!  This week we look at the aftermath of the SVB collapse for insurance, an AI-powered commercial auto fundraise and acquisitions and launches from insurtechs.  Here are the three things we learned:

 [1]

Insurance Aftermath of SVB Collapse

Last Friday was unsettling for many of us with the news of the SVB collapse.  This week we learned a lot about how this will affect the insurance industry.  While it appears that deposits and creditors will be made whole, the first place to look for trouble was in startup carriers.  Already on shaky financial footing would this further weaken them?  Luckily, most had minimal exposure Root and Lemonade both largely unaffected.  Bamboo’s CEO got ahead of the concern with good communications.  Hippo continues to appear strong, announcing a $50M stock repurchase, returning capital to investors, no mention of SVB ties.  Another focus was in the D&O insurance market.  There was potential for a spike in claims had the government not decided to help depositors.  For D&O insureds, this event ‘highlights the critical important of enterprise risk management, asset/liability management and liquidity profiles”.

 [2]

Fairmatic Raises $46M, Telematics Momentum

Fairmatic a commercial auto focused AI-power insurer, announced a Series B fundraise of $46M.  This brings their total raised to $88M.  They have a couple of interesting insurance figures involved including former Guidewire CEO Marcus Ryu’s venture shop Battery and former Zendrive CEO who states they are ‘creating a new commercial auto insurance category’.  It is also notable to see this amount of funding as venture capital investment has slowed so far this year.  There is still appetite for investment in ‘good’ insurtechs.  Our friend Matteo wrote an insightful post this week providing facts & figures about the opportunity in auto telematics featuring information we posted a couple of weeks back from Progressive.  The telematics strategy and technology needs to be applied intentionally in the future of auto insurance.

 [3]

Acquisitions and Launches

Cover Genius, an insurtech for embedded protection, picked up the assets of a distressed warranty provider Clyde Technologies.  Clyde has many name brand merchant partners and technology that will help Cover Genius with a profitable warranty product at the point of sale.  VIU launches pet insurance with Fetch, their 6th affinity partnership in their first 9 months of existence.  Fetch conducted a pet owner survey that told them 42%  of respondents could not afford a surprise vet bill.  The unique offering will feature predictive health technology to help pet owners with this concern.  Coalition enters the excess cyber market in the UK.  They now offer coverage of up to $12.1 M above primary layer from another carrier, building on excess cyber products started in US 2020 and Canada 2021.  Expansion into Australia is next up.

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