Insurtech UK - 2023 round up

Message from the Co-Chairs

As we approach the start of new year, we wanted to reflect on what has been another very busy and eventful year for Insurtech UK and the sector as a whole. It has undoubtedly been a challenging year for some in our sector, with a tough funding environment combined with turbulent economic and political events globally. Despite the challenges it has been great to to still see a number of success stories in our industry with many members showing great resilience and prospering.   

There have been some really big developments this year. None more so than the strategic decision to appoint our first CEO in Melissa Collett. As many members will already attest to, she has made a huge impact in such a short space of time, engaging with the industry, attending events, bringing on new members and representing Insurtech UK both at national and international trade shows as well as with Government and regulators. This will set us up well for 2024 in building a bigger plan of activity that will benefit all members. If you haven’t already met Melissa, please do reach out to her at melissa.collet@insurtechuk.org

A big focus of our work was also the delivery of the  “The United Kingdom: the nexus of insurtech” report with our principal partner McKinsey & Co. I would like to thank our partners at Mckinsey for all their efforts as well as the Insurtech UK Advisory Panel and other members who contributed to this work. It has been really well received and we are using it actively with conversations. Indeed the Economic Secretary Bim Afolami MP received his own personal copy in a recent meeting with Insurtech UK! 

Outlined below is a bit more detail in relation to all the work that has been done in terms of our workstreams, our policy work as well as thought leadership events and activity we have undertaken. It would be great to ensure more colleagues from across the Insurtech UK membership base interact with our work, so please do spread the message. 

McKinsey Report Launch

This exciting report is the result of world class analysis and shows the strength of the UK Insurtech scene. Our members and Insurtech UK Advisory Panel had the opportunity to support and develop its considerable findings.

Some key takeaways are: 

• The UK is a global insurtech leader, with London boasting the same number of Insurtech unicorns as the rest of Europe combined, and second only to Silicon Valley globally.
• Insurtechs contribute almost £5 billion to the UK economy and support 60,000 diverse, young, and highly qualified jobs across all of the UK. 
• Of the estimated 3,000 Insurtech firms in the world, approximately 280 are located in the UK—the highest number of Insurtechs per capita among all major world economies.

Insurtech UK looks forward to supporting the sector in tackling both the challenges and opportunities ahead, leveraging the findings of this report to bring forward our members’ strategic priorities into 2024.

Policy Activity

Our policy work has continued on multiple fronts this year as we continue to build and manage relationships with key political stakeholders. We have held positive meetings with the Department of Business and Trade (DBT), the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), and HM Treasury, including both former and current Economic Secretaries. 

Following the passage of the Financial Services and Markets Bill, we have been working to harness the ‘Solvency UK’ reforms and deliver opportunities for insurtechs through continued engagement with the Prudential Regulatory Authority (PRA) and the Bank of England on formulating an insurance mobilisation regime. Further work with the Treasury and the PRA will be developed to help make the Mobilisation regime more accessible for our members. 

Through feedback from members, we have submitted responses to five high-level government consultations:

• HMRC consultation on draft guidance for T&D tax reliefs
• Budget Representations
• HMT consultation on R&D single scheme
• Treasury Committee inquiry on SME finance
• HMT consultation on new publication metrics for the PRA and FCA

With the support of our partners, we are also been engaging with stakeholders on issues around Advanced Subscription Agreements (ASAs) guidance and longstop dates, our position around IPT and VAT, as well as Reverse Charging on VAT, to address some of the ambiguity for the insurtech sector. Guidance documents are being planned and developed in all these areas for the new year. 

At the same time we have continued to provide commentary for the trade press and ensure 

Workstream activity

We have continued to develop the activities of our working groups and get more people across our member companies involved in the workstreams. These include:

• The Insurtech UK Advisory Panel was focused on supporting McKinsey in the delivery of the big industry report. 
• Two Late Stage Member meetings on the topics of Alliances and War for Tech Talent, coordinated by our principal partner McKinsey were delivered.
• The first face-to-face event of our Diversity and Inclusion group earlier this year, focusing on engaging with team members during turbulent financial times. Other DEI events include online meetings on the topics of retention and inclusivity, and neurodiversity in the workplace with GAIN, and a ‘female founder focus’ panel at our Autumn Forum.
• We partnered with the Insurer Focus Group at the beginning of 2023 looking at the partnership process between insurtechs and insurers, which we will continue to develop in 2024 and likely be taken over by the Advisory Panel.

Events

We have had a really busy year for events with lots of great insights and networking, including two half-day conferences. Some of our event highlights this year:

• Our ‘Insurance for Good’ conference (scuppered a few times by train strikes) finally took place in March, bringing together our whole ecosystem to explore how insurtech, insurers and partners can collaborate for the benefit of the sector and consumer.
• We held two successful investor member pitching sessions that we’ll look to continue organising in the new year. 
• The Autumn Forum was really well received in November, which saw a variety of interesting topics being discussed, including a presentation on the major factors affecting capital, panels looking at investment, female founders and the role of AI, and closing remarks delivered by Chris Hayward, Policy Chairman of London.
• We have also been present at the majority of industry conferences and secured discounted tickets for our members at conferences such as ITC Europe, ITC Vegas and Insurance Insider. This included member village at ITC Europe with plans for more of this next year at various events. 

A look ahead - Insurtech UK’s strategy for 2024

As we look towards 2024, key focuses of Insurtech UK are:

• Redeveloping the new Insurtech UK Advisory Panel with a refreshed agenda and strategic update to expand into new priority areas for Insurtech UK members and ensure collaboration between insurers and insuretechs are at the heart of this group. 
• Continuing our engagement with Government and regulators on technical bits as well as building alliances with key political contacts as we lead up to the General Election.
• Developing an insightful content and events plan, with half-day conferences and member pitching sessions already planned. Events currently planned for the first half of 2024 include:
• A planned Fintech Wales event in January
• A US Expansion dinner held at the office of our partner, Evelyn Partners.
• An investor pitching session held as part of Insurtech Week in March.
• A finance breakfast - late March TBC.
• Our half-day conference in May at Evelyn Partners.
• A DEI pride event in June.
• We have also secured speaking opportunities at industry conferences next year such as InsurtechLIVE Australia and Insurtech Insights Europe.