A significant shift towards commercial lines is occurring in the insurtech space, with a focus on data and analytics for risk selection and pricing, specialist insurance systems and claims.

This is among the findings of research conducted by London-based insurance advisor, Oxbow Partners, which reveals the 25 technology-led businesses it believes to be well positioned to have a major impact on the European insurance industry.

Its 'state of the nation' study presents a maturing market that has moved beyond the hype of the past two years towards a wide-ranging number of solutions and platforms adding real value to insurers and other market participants.

The 'InsurTech Impact 25' report highlights examples of collaboration with the traditional insurance market among the companies selected by Oxbow based on an assessment of the impact and sustainability of their strategy, execution capabilities and existing traction.

In the report's second edition, the firms are more heavily weighted to distribution insurtechs. Members include Inshur, which targets gig economy drivers and Finabro, a pensions platform in German-speaking Europe. A new category, Distribution Support, was added to reflect an emerging business model where insurtechs help incumbents with distribution but do not sell products themselves. Broker Insights (a firm set up by a former Aviva executive), German ‘full stack’ insurer Element and Hokodo (set up by the former group COO of Aspen) are all examples in this category.

Chris Sandilands, a partner at Oxbow Partners and the report’s lead author, said: “Insurtech is continuing to evolve. We’re seeing some business models such as pricing analytics mature, and some really interesting propositions targeting personal lines and SME emerge. We’re happy that hype around possible disruption has calmed over the last year, and that leading insurers and brokers are now taking a considered approach to the opportunities insurtech offers them.”

The Impact 25 members are:

Distribution: Finabro, FloodFlash, Inshur, Yulife, Zeguro
Distribution Support: Broker Insights, Element, Hokodo, Laka, Ottonova, Tremor
Data & Analytics: Concirrus, DQPro, Inforcehub, Metabiota, Pharm3r, Shepherd
Operations: Artificial Labs, Digital Insurance Group, Insly, McKenzie Intelligence, OnSiteIQ, Whitespace
Claims: Bdeo, Snapsheet

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