Insurtech deal activity is on track to outpace last year, driven by a growing health insurance industry in China, where 13% of global insurtech deals originated in the third quarter.

As a result, the Asia Pacific (APAC) share of insurtech deals rose to 30%, compared with Europe’s 16%, according to a quarterly report on the sector from Willis Towers Watson.

A total of $US4.36 billion ($6.37 billion) was invested in insurtech companies across 239 transactions in the first three quarters of 2019, up 5% on all of 2018. In the third quarter, 83 worldwide deals valuing $US1.5 billion ($2.19 billion) took place, up 6% from the previous three months.

“People across the sector now talk more positively about the use of technology,” Willis Re Global Head of insurtech Andrew Johnston said. “Some see it as the potential saviour of a broken system.

Describing insurtech as the “greatest achievement to date”, acting “like a defibrillator on the heart of the insurance industry”, Mr Johnston said the continuing rise in investment acknowledges the enormous role technology has to play in insurance.

Insurtech today is “as much about hype and entrepreneurial culture as it is about appropriate technology for the (re)insurance industry”, he said. “We need to avoid becoming a sector jaded and frustrated by it.”.

Three “mammoth” deals -- backing US app-based motor insurer Root Insurance, California-based home insurance provider Hippo, and Indian insurance aggregator PolicyBazaar – boosted the value of investments in property/casualty-focused firms this year.

In China, health insurance start-ups such as Xiaobangtouzi, Mintbao, and Duobaoyu are providing platforms for consumers to engage with brokers. Nuanwa, which spun out of Zhong An Insurance with seed funding from Sequoia Capital China, provides technology to connect insurance companies to the healthcare system in China.