| One of the more interesting aspects of Alex Wilhelm’s daily column is the way he uses metrics from public companies to gain insight into private investment activity — and vice versa. Today, he pulled data from the Bessemer Cloud Index and a chart from Redpoint VP Jamin Ball to study year-to-year growth numbers. Why are investors flowing cash to cloud and SaaS startups with such enthusiasm this quarter? Although “public cloud results are dragging software startups forward in terms of venture interest,” he concludes, “things are hot everywhere in software-land, and a boiling pot cooks all vegetables.” Yesterday, he used Next Insurance’s purchase of Juniper Labs as a lens for studying the insurtech sector, which has seen valuations and revenue soar in 2020. Insurtech “is on track for a record year of venture rounds and venture dollars,” wrote Alex, but given some of industry-specific economics, “there are some concerns,” such as “accounting shakeups” that could shrink revenues. He also covered Noyo, an insurtech startup that uses APIs to connect HR and benefits platforms, Getsafe, a German startup that raised a $30 million Series B, and Houston-based NOW Insurance, which just closed another seed round. “Expect to keep hearing about insurtech for quarters and quarters to come,” says Alex. Thanks very much for reading Extra Crunch this week! Walter Thompson
Senior Editor, TechCrunch
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