InsurTech Europe: September 2023

Let's have a look at the deals announced in September. The month concludes with a moderate note, featuring a total of 6 deals during this period. This is slightly below the monthly average in recent years, but it's still a respectable figure.In terms of investment amounts, these startups have collectively raised €24 million, with one notable deal accounting for €10 million. This deal belongs to the French startup Stoik, which announced its funding round earlier this fall. Stoik, much like the other players in Europe, operates in the realm of cyber InsurTech, offering a similar mix of cyber protection and insurance products distributed through partner brokers. Interestingly, the startup boasts 1,500 partner brokers and 2,000 policies sold, indicating a ratio of more than one policy per broker. It's worth monitoring how this develops, given that the adoption rate of cyber insurance among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) remains relatively low. Two corporate players, MunichRE Ventures and OperaTech Ventures (BNP's fund), have entered as investors. It's also noteworthy that these same players participated in the funding round of Insify, a startup focused on online insurance distribution for SMEs, earlier in the summer. There seems to be a budding trend with these two InsurTech deals targeting the same customer segment. We'll keep an eye on this.Beyond this substantial funding round, which solidifies cyber InsurTech as the hottest trend of the moment, the other five deals are of a more modest size, each below €5 million. Notably, there's Inari, a Spanish startup raising €4.8 million for its SaaS solution aimed at pricing challenges for insurers and reinsurers.Completing the podium is OpenCover, securing €4.2 million in funding. This InsurTech, based in the UK, operates in the realm of emerging risks, offering insurance solutions for crypto and digital asset-related risks.