Investors poured a record $US1.99 billion ($2.97 billion) into insurtechs around the world during the December quarter, up 32% from the previous quarter, according to a regular Willis Towers Watson industry update.

The investments were spread over 75 deals, with nearly half of it committed to insurtechs in the US. China ranked a distant second with 10% of the deals made, followed by Germany on 5%.

Overall funding commitments for last year reached $US6.37 billion ($9.5 billion), including $US3.52 billion ($5.3 billion) which went to property and casualty digital start-ups.

Despite the strong numbers, the report warns the sector also has the “very real story that is not so positive – individual insurtech company cessation”.

“This natural feature of the insurtech evolutionary cycle gets very little attention in pretty much any of the forums where insurtech is being discussed, and yet it is such an important facet of what is actually going on,” the report says.

According to the report, at least 184 insurtechs might have closed down.

“The true number is actually likely to be much higher than this because we can only really begin tracking a company once it has raised capital,” the report says.

“Those companies that never raise any investment capital are almost certain to ‘not make it’. One thing is clear: insurtechs operating in obscurity have very short shelf lives if the capital injected at an early level fails to support commercial germination.”