Introducing the InsurTech Capitals of the World

Not so long ago, Hartford, Conn., was widely known as the insurance capital of the world. Today, interest has shifted to technology-led insurance firms, or InsurTechs, raising the question: Where is the InsurTech capital of the world?

With insurance technology companies starting up in the U.S. from Silicon Valley to New York and globally in London, Shanghai and elsewhere, which city or cities can lay claim to the title “InsurTech Capital of the World”?

Carrier Management magazine, the Wells Media Group publication for property/casualty insurance executives, answers the question in its most recent issue, using an analysis provided exclusively to Carrier Management by Venture Scanner, an analyst and technology-powered research firm, in an article titled, “Where Is the InsurTech Capital of the World?”

London, New York and San Francisco rank highest by a simple count of the number of InsurTechs in each city.

However, based on concentration of funding dollars, Palo Alto, Calif., edges out San Francisco for the top spot—each reports more than $2 billion—while London sinks to 12th place.

As of January, Venture Scanner counted 1,438 InsurTechs with $19 billion of funding, with 625 of them located in cities that have five or more InsurTechs.

“More than 800 others are scattered in cities with four InsurTechs or less, underscoring the fact that insurance technology startups are a worldwide phenomenon,” said Susanne Sclafane, Carrier Management’s executive editor and author of the report.

Carrier Management’s report features several lists, including: Top 20 Cities for InsurTech Startups Ranked by Startup Count and Top 20 Cities for InsurTech Startups Ranked by Total Funding Dollars.

The Carrier Management report details the InsurTech boom, with a map of InsurTechs by U.S. state and counts for European and Asian cities. It also includes an analysis of the popularity of InsurTechs in Israel, Singapore, California and New York, and breaks down the distribution of property/casualty vs. life and benefits InsurTechs for the top cities.

The report uses Venture Scanner data from all publicly known funding events, including all sources (venture capital, corporates, private equity, etc.) and rounds (early stage, late stage, post-IPO equity, etc.). According to Nathan Pacer, Venture Scanner’s co-founder and chief research officer, the vast majority of those funding events (more than 95 percent) occur from 2011 onward.

Source: Where Is the InsurTech Capital of the World?