News in numbers

Verdict InsurTech gathers the most important industry news in recent times, including some startling figures

$1bn

French insurance company AXA has entered into a deal to sell its operations in Poland, Czech Republic and Slovakia to UNIQA Insurance Group for €1bn ($1.09bn).


The divestment is part of the French insurer’s wider restructuring initiative to exit markets where it lacks scale.


Under the terms of deal, AXA will sell 100% of its life & savings, property & casualty and pension businesses in Central and Eastern Europe to the Austrian insurer UNIQA.

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2022

British general insurance company RSA has announced plans to double its number of apprentices by the year 2022.


The insurer said that currently it has 278 employees are on apprenticeship programmes and will be increased to around 500 in the next three years.


RSA will widen the variety of apprenticeship programmes it offers in order meet this target.

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$10bn

Pacific Life Re has assumed £10bn ($13bn) of longevity risk from pension schemes of Lloyds Banking Group.


The transaction, arranged with Lloyds Banking Group Pensions Trustees, is said to be the reinsurer’s second-largest UK longevity swap.


The £16bn deal between BT Pension Scheme and PICA, executed in 2014, is the first largest deal in this regard.

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$100m

Policygenius, an online insurance marketplace, has secured $100m in Series D funding round.


The round was led by global investment firm KKR. As part of the investment, KKR’s Allan Jean-Baptiste and Jake Heller will join Policygenius’ Board of Directors.


The company’s existing major backers including Norwest Venture Partners, Revolution Ventures, Susa Ventures, MassMutual Ventures, AXA Venture Partners and Transamerica Ventures also joined in the round.

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Top Stories

The Zebra insurance comparison site secures $38.5m investment


The Zebra, an insurance comparison site based in Texas, has received an infusion of $38.5m through a Series C funding round led by venture capital firm Accel.


Accel was joined by family-owned private investment firm Weatherford Capital, as well as existing backers Silverton Partners, Daher Capital, Floodgate Fund, and Ballast Point Ventures.


The Zebra CEO Keith Melnick also participated in the latest financing round.

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Willis Towers Watson records revenue growth for Q4 and 2019


Willis Towers Watson has seen revenue for 2019 hit $9.04bn, a 6% rise from the year previous.


In addition, revenue for Q4 2019 was $2.69bn, a 13% increase year-on-year compared to $2.37bn.


Net income for Q4 2019 was $544m, 44% than the $378m earned in the prior year fourth quarter. For the whole of 2019, net income totalled $1.04bn, a 50% spike from 2018.

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Boost Insurance gains $14m in Series A funding


Boost Insurance has raised $14m in Series A funding to help expand its infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) platform.


The funding round was co-led by Coature and Greycroft. Tusk Venture Partners, Conversion Capital, and MetLife chairman Glenn Hubbard also contributed. Norwest Venture Partners and IA Capital Group were existing investors and participated.


This takes Boost’s total funding to $17m and will be used to launch new business lines and expand its API services.

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Life insurance premium finance firm Gracie Point raises $50m


Life insurance premium finance provider Gracie Point has secured $50m in funding to drive expansion.


The fundraising has been led by Hudson Structured Capital Management, which carries out its re/insurance operations as HSCM Bermuda.


HSCM Bermuda managing partner Michael Millette said: “The opportunity to build a global premium finance company in the life insurance space that is connected to the capital markets is one that we think will fundamentally shift how life insurance is bought and sold, and we have enjoyed our many year partnership with Gracie Point who we view as the market leader in the space.”

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Hilltop to divest National Lloyds for $150m to Align Financial


US financial holding company Hilltop has brokered a deal to sell its fully-owned subsidiary National Lloyds to Align Financial in an all-cash deal valued at nearly $150m.


National Lloyds is a specialty property insurer based in Texas. It primarily caters to owners of mobile homes and lower value homes.


The specialty property insurer operates two subsidiaries, National Lloyds Insurance and American Summit Insurance for writing premiums.

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Digit Insurance gains another $84m in funding


Insurtech Digit Insurance has gained approval from IRDAI to raise $84m of funding from growth investors.


The three growth equity investors are A91 Partners, Faering Capital and TVS Capital. This would bring Digit’s overall funding to $224m.


Employees have also invested. 72 members of Digit staff brought in $4.34m as a part of this funding round.

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