European insurtech is showing strength that venture data doesn’t fully detail

If you only tracked American insurance technology companies that went public recently, you might think insurtech is in its flop era.

Thankfully, that isn’t true.

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We saw earlier this week how the falling valuations of public insurtech companies have coincided with a decline in VC interest in the category.

The funding climate for late-stage startups in the sector has consequently been tough, but there’s plenty of optimism around the newest generation of startups.

However, it’s worthwhile to note that the U.S. heavily skews the data in the global insurtech market. Of the $2.4 billion invested in insurtech startups across the world, half, or $1.2 billion, went to American companies, per data from Dealroom. Regional results, therefore, deserve more of our attention.

So this morning, we’re looking at how insurtech has been doing in the EU. We’ll also check on the performance of several European insurtech startups, per data collected by Stanislas Lot, an investor at Daphni. To work!

Where does Europe stand?

The U.S. insurtech market is the single largest in the world for venture investment, which isn’t surprising since it is the world’s largest venture market. Still, Europe doesn’t stack up too poorly, coming in at third place, following a bucket of countries grouped as “Rest of Asia,” per Dealroom.

So far in 2023, Europe’s insurtech startups have raised $341 million, 33% less than a year earlier. That decline is actually steeper than what we’ve seen around the world (a 23% fall), in the United States (22% lower) and Southeast Asia (down 5%). Notably, only the “Rest of Asia” bucket saw any growth (58%).