Insurance Technology

Dear Clients and Friends,

Marlin & Associates (M&A) is pleased to share our latest market update on the Insurance Technology (InsurTech) sector.

If there is any silver lining to this global pandemic, it’s been the spur it has caused to apply digital technologies to solving common industry challenges such as underwriting and selling policies, processing claims, and making better use of data. As we know, digital transformation of the insurance industry is not new. Many of these efforts have long been “in the works”. What is new is the increased sense of urgency by industry executives to take advantage of the benefits offered by such technologies. It’s about meeting customer expectations –and staying competitive in a rapidly evolving market.

Our industry went through a rocky patch in the second quarter. Spring was tough. But as you will see in this REPORT, the InsurTech market seems to have come rocketing back. Several InsurTech firms have outperformed the broader market. Root, Media Alpha, and Duck Creek all went public in Q3, raising $724mm, $176mm, and $405mm, respectively. There is a stack of others eying the same route. Capital raising was also at an all-time high last quarter with volume reaching $4.0bn, more than four times the levels achieved in the first quarter and more than double the amount of capital raised in the second quarter of 2020. And, of course, all of this has led to more m&a as entrepreneurs, private equity firms and others look for sources of liquidity. As examples, PE-backed Zywave completed two roll-up acquisitions: ITC and Advisen. Sapiens, Israel-based public InsurTech, acquired Denmark-based TIA technology for $78mm.

Marlin & Associates is one of the most active investment banking and strategic advisory firms, providing trusted counsel to middle-market companies worldwide that offer enterprise and vertical application software, services, data and analytics –including firms across FinTech ecosystem (InsurTech, BankTech, Payments, WealthTech, LegalTech, GRC), Digital Tech, Business Intelligence, and Market Intelligence. Over the course of 18+ years we have advised more than 200 companies in 27 countries.

Please feel free to reach out to me (aagarwal@marlinllc.com) with any questions or to discuss this in further detail. We are keen to hear from you and happy to share what we are witnessing in the markets and how that could relate to your company.

Kind regards,

Anup Agarwal