Insurtech - Overview and Influence of Business Model Innovation in the Insurance Industry - A structured analysis

Almost two billion dollars in venture capital investment between the third quarter of 2015 and 2016 for Insurtechs and headlines promising the needed shakeup in the insurance industry, Insurtech is a new phenomenon for financial services, similar to Fintech, but exclusive to insurance. While hopes and promises are high, thorough analysis of the landscape of this new kind of insurance companies remain scarce. This work aims to enable an overview of how Insurtechs are categorized into distinct fields and what potential impact they could have on the insurer’s value chain. For this, 253 Insurtechs across 13 categories are analyzed. The thorough analysis reveals that Insurtechs potentially have an impact in almost all activities of the insurer’s value chain through business model innovation. However, it also concludes, that their business models on distribution, customer service, data analytics and digitalization are more an opportunity than a threat for incumbents as 70% act as digital brokers, 25% as service providers through software and only 5% are insurers.