Why investors are hunting insurtech unicorns

The ultimate ambition of venture capitalist VC investors is to rope a unicorn a privately held start-up company that can be nurtured into a success worth at least $1 billion. 

Many industries have become infatuated with these elusive creatures, and over the last year or two this has come to include the insurance sector. Participants in the US and Europe have begun investing in insurance technology companies dubbed insurtech. 

Asia’s larger life insurance players are also starting to get in on the act. Perhaps the most prominent example Japan’s Sumitomo Life spending $90 million on about 25% of newcomer Singapore Life on July 1.