Insurtech ‘narrative shift’ sees sector promoting itself as incumbent partner of choice

By George Hanks

Oxbow Partners has been following the insurtech scene closely since it first emerged in 2015. Its rise has been rapid. In a few years, it has grown from a handful of pioneering entrepreneurs to many thousands of companies.

Over the last seven years, we have seen various trends emerge, while some have faded.

Peer-to-peer models and blockchain have come and gone, whereas parametric models, embedded distribution and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies have taken root.

We have also seen a narrative shift – insurtech has gone from claiming it will turn the industry on its head to instead promoting itself as a partner to incumbents.

Despite a drop in investment since a peak in 2021, the insurtech universe continues to grow in both size and complexity.

Even seasoned technology executives struggle to know which provider to use for their technology transformation – or indeed whether they should use an ecosystem of providers.

Often, the differences between vendors are subtle – products may vary in the function they perform, the clients they target, or the technology supporting them. Helping executives navigate this crowded and fragmented space is what led us to publish our four Insurtech Impact 25 reports.

We are now proud to have supported Insurance Times with its first Insurtech 50 report, again highlighting the insurtechs that executives should have on their radar.

This list focuses on insurtechs that are suppliers – companies that support insurers and brokers rather than sell insurance themselves – making them suitable partners for retail insurers in the UK.

The report is based on data and metrics from Magellan, Oxbow Partners’ insurance technology navigator, which contains detailed data on over 4,000 insurance focused technology vendors.

‘Good decade’ ahead 

Of course, it is impossible to rank insurtechs in any meaningful way, so this is an ‘interesting 50’ rather than a ‘top 50’ list.

We have identified companies that can improve customer outcomes and reduce the costs associated with functions like data ingestion and claims processing.

We have ensured that high impact opportunity areas – like data and analytics use cases – are well represented. We have included some companies specifically because they are having an outsized impact.

As a result, you will not find common names like ManyPets, Marshmallow or Lemonade in this report as we define these as distribution insurtechs.

We have also not included established tech giants as the intention of this list is to highlight less well known vendors. Of course, executives should consider both insurtech and established vendors in any vendor selection process.

It promises to be a good decade for supplier insurtechs.

Insurers have committed to their digital transformations and are spending heavily on technology. Chief information officers have moved from treating young insurtechs as peripheral experiments to instead work with them as vendors that can be placed at critical points of their firms’ technology architecture.

Many insurtechs have risen to this opportunity by professionalising their operations and adapting their propositions to the needs of incumbents.