According to the research carried out by the Italian Insurtech Association (Iia) in collaboration with the Fintech and Insurtech Observatory of the Politecnico di Milano, the Italian insurtech industry started to grow: in 2021, investments were € 280 million, compared to € 50 million in 2020, an increase of 460%.
Despite this strong acceleration, Italy is still behind compared to other European countries. For example, France’s investments in insurtech in 2021 were approx. € 1.3 billion, while UK and Germany exceeded € 1.5 billion.
The main reason for this gap is related to investments in insurtech startups and scaleups. Globally, insurtech startups received $ 15 billion in 2021, while European companies received around $ 3.5 billion. In Italy, startups raised less than € 20 million.
Therefore, growth in Italy is mainly driven by the development of insurtech projects by companies, tech intermediaries and digital players and collaborative projects on digital crossovers.
In particular, investments of insurance companies and intermediaries into startups in Italy are minimal, amounting to € 10 million in 2021 (it was € 5.1 million in 2020). Only 6 insurance companies and intermediaries out of 10 are driving Italian Insurtech investments, and they are particularly active in pursuing innovation projects.
Startup investments mainly concerned the development of products and services (40%), policy distribution (25%), investments in technology and tech platforms (25%) and lastly, claims management (10%).
The research also provided an overview of the insurtech ecosystem in Italy in 2021. There were 130 innovative companies, divided into two categories: 64% are insurtech in the strict sense, i.e. they offer insurance services, while 36% are tech insurance, i.e. they provide technologies for players in the insurance sector.
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For more statistics on the insurtech industry (in Italian): https://insurtechitaly.com/news/insurtech-da-record-280-milioni-di-euro-di-investimenti-in-italia-nel-2021/ – https://insurtechitaly.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Insurtech-Investment-Index-2022.pdf