Venture capital

In 2020, American Family Insurance launched a partnership with the Creative Destruction Lab and the University of Wisconsin-Madison that provides support and mentorship to start-up founders in their companies’ early stages. A year into the partnership and there are truly inspiring to learn from the startup founders.

The three winning teams will split $200,000 in prizes. Eligible insurtechs include those that had less than $250,000 in revenue last year.

In case you missed it, insurtech -- technology developed to improve and transform the insurance industry -- is having a bit of a moment. Forrester recently reported record-breaking funding for insurtechs, closing Q3 at $15 billion - more funding than in 2019 and 2020 combined - with more deals anticipated by the end-of-year.

During, “The View from Venture Capital,” at the Digital Insurance DIGIN conference, Dec. 10, three experts involved in venture capital firms discussed what they look for when funding a company and what’s ahead for the industry.

As the wave of SPAC mergers crested in the past two years, startups that chose this path found it difficult to keep up with more established companies and investor expectations. The insurtech companies that went this route are not exempt from experiencing that strain.

There were nine rounds of more than $20 million this month.

There were about 12 funding rounds in the insurtech sector in August 2021, according to a review by Digital Insurance and with data from Crunchbase.

More than 97% of venture backing goes go white-owned startups. Firms like Mendoza Ventures, Chingona Ventures and MaC Venture Capital are stepping in to support underserved entrepreneurs.

Insurtech maturity and the pandemic are driving investment.

Insurance company will more than triple its commitment to insurtech startup investment.