$9.3 billion have been invested in fintech startups globally in the second quarter of 2020, an increase of 17% over the previous quarter, according to Business Insider. The number of operations fell from 452 in the first quarter to 397, however, there were 28 megarounds (over $100 million hits) for established fintechs, which were particularly noteworthy during the Covid-19 pandemic, which as is known, pushed digitalisation.
The megaround offspring of Covid
Among the most important investments (nearly all in U.S.) are: the payments giant Stripe ($600 million); the trading application Robinhood ($280 million, although it has already raised another $320 million in the third quarter); the Brazilian-based neobank Nubank ($300 million); the neobank Varo ($241 million) and the insurtech Duck Creek ($230 million).
Duck Creek was not the only insurtech: Oscar Health raised $225 million, Pie Insurance $127 million, States Title $123 million, close to the BoughtByMany megaround title with $98 million and Coalition with $90 million.
Investors have tried to capitalize on tech companies responding to the growing demand for digitization. For example, fears of being replaced by more technologically sophisticated players are driving traditional insurers to improve their digital offerings, increasing the value of specialized software providers like Duck Creek. And the resulting market volatility has encouraged more consumers to look for investment platforms, leading to increased user and revenue growth for trading applications such as Robinhood.
What Duck Creek, that launched IPO, does
Duck Creek works in the Software as a Service (Saas) sector and offers specific programs designed for insurers and agencies willing to launch a digital transformation process.
SaaS Duck Creek Suite Suite provides companies with open and highly configurable applications in all key areas of their business, such as policy administration, billing, claims, analysis, industry content, distribution and reinsurance management, key drivers underlying their digital transformations. Duck Creek OnDemand is the leading SaaS system solution for P&C industry.
In the first weeks of August, Duck Creek also made an exciting stock market launch at the Nasdaq, boosting its worth to about $3 billion and raising capital to over $450 million. According to Techcrunch, this is a great success for a company that has had a turnover of just over $150 million in the last three quarters.
Duck Creek is the next insurtech giant.
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