This is an update to Coretech Insight’s ongoing review of publicly announced coretech platform deals with P&C insurers.

The number of announced coretech deals in 2024 set a new low for the past decade. This decline reflected buyer concerns about the broader economic and political environment. Looking to 2025 and beyond, the need for core modernization is still great.
In our review of P&C insurance groups and companies we identified 178 potential coretech deal opportunities.

Overview

In Coretech Insight’s ongoing review of P&C core platform deal announcements, 2024 had the lowest number of new announcements for any year in the past decade, including 2020. This decline occurred with insurers of all sizes except for start-ups, with the most pronounced drop in deals with SMB insurers (less than $1B DWP).

This drop in deal announcements is not from a lack of need or opportunity for core modernization. In our review, we identified 178 potential opportunities for new coretech deals to fill gaps in deployed modules or replace aging and less-competitive solutions. We also identified over 650 insurers without public coretech announcements that offer potential deal opportunities.

Analysis

Figure 1 below shows core platform selection announcements from 2015 through 2024. A downward trend that began in 2022 became more pronounced in 2024. The 17 public announcements during 2024 represented a drop of 35% from the prior year, and a drop of more than 50% from the average for the five “normal” years prior to 2020.

Figure 1. Public P&C Core Platform Selections, 2015 - 2024

Note: These totals do not reflect all new system selections. We estimate these public announcements cover 30 to 40% of all selections from P&C insurance carriers or MGAs/MGUs during these years. Although not a complete accounting of all deals, these announcements are valuable as public, verifiable records. See Note 1. Methodology below for more details.

Figure 2 shows the number of announced deals by premium tier for each year, and the lower total number of deals compared to prior years in each tier except startups. The drop in 2024 was most pronounced among deals with SMB insurers, below $1B DWP.

Figure 2. P&C Core Platform Selections by DWP Tiers

As Figure 3 illustrates, buyers in 2024 favored well-established vendors with modular or all-in-one P&C core platforms over newer market entrants.

Figure 3. P&C Core Platform Selections by Solution Type

Table 1 tracks deals on a vendor-by-vendor basis for 2023 and 2024. The number of vendors publicly announcing new deals shrank from thirteen in 2023 to eight in 2024. Among these, most vendors announced one or two deals with startups or small insurers. Only Guidewire and Origami Risk reported deals with insurers above $100M in DWP, and only Guidewire announced deals with insurers above $1B DWP.

Table 1. Publicly Announced P&C Core Platform Selections, 2023 - 2024

Is the Party Over for P&C Coretech Platforms?

Given the downward trend in deal announcements over the past three years, it’s fair to ask if this is more than a temporary lull in buying activity. Could this trend reflect industry progress with modernization that has reduced the demand for modern P&C core systems? Is “the party over” for new coretech platform deals?

To gauge industry progress with core modernization, we reviewed various public industry sources and statistics and identified over 1,100 active US P&C insurance groups, subgroups, and individual companies.

We then cross-referenced these groups/companies with press releases, case studies, and other announcements from P&C core platform vendors and their customers. As Figure 4 illustrates, we used this public data to organize these groups and companies into three categories reflecting the apparent state of their core modernization path:

Established - these organizations have selected or deployed all three core modules for policy, billing, and claims, most often as a modular suite or all-in-one platform.
Evolving - these organizations have selected or deployed at least one core module for policy, billing, or claims.
Undefined - this (largest) group of insurance organizations had no known public coretech announcements or affiliations with any coretech providers.

Figure 4. Status of Core Modernization - US P&C Insurance Carrier Groups and Companies

Figure 5 shows organizations in the categories of Evolving and Established by the number and characteristics of their deployed modules.

Within the category of Evolving, we find 123 organizations split between those that have deployed one module and those that have deployed two or more. Most of these organizations have deployed on-prem; many deployments are more than a decade old.

Within the category of Established, we see how these organizations have progressed toward the cloud, and modular suites or all-in-one platforms.

Figure 5. Deployment Profiles for Evolving & Established Organizations

Figure 6 shows the distribution of 178 coretech opportunities within these evolving and established organizations. Nearly every evolving organization is an opportunity for one or more core modules, so these 120 opportunities mirror their deployments. In contrast, most of the established organizations have completed a modernization cycle and are less likely to be in the market for a new coretech platform. Within this group, though, there are over 50 opportunities with organizations that have aging deployments or are likely to move away from less-viable vendor offerings.

Figure 6. Opportunities Among Evolving or Established Organizations

Figure 7 below shows a breakdown of all 178 opportunities across the evolving and established groups by module and tier. Nearly 40% of these are opportunities for suites or all-in-one platforms that span policy, billing, and claims. Most of these suite/all-in-one opportunities are with organizations under $100M DWP. The majority of larger organizations, above $100M DWP, are opportunities for one or two core modules.

Figure 7. Evolving or Established Opportunities by Module & Premium Tier

Figure 8 shows how the 667 organizations in the undefined category also offer coretech opportunities, but of a different flavor. These organizations are smaller and more likely to focus on commercial lines, workers comp, or other less common lines of business such as credit, warranty, and surety. Many are risk retention groups established for professional liability insurance. Opportunities within this undefined group favor smaller, more nimble vendors that can deploy rapidly, have competitive pricing, and specialize in workers’ comp and other commercial and specialty LOBs.

Figure 8. Undefined Organizations by LOB and Premium Tier

Broader concerns about the business and political environment may have slowed buying cycles in 2024, but the “coretech party” isn’t over. There are hundreds of insurers that have yet to complete a core modernization cycle.

The number of potential opportunities we identified is conservative. We did not attempt to quantify significant opportunities with non-carriers, such as MGAs (over 40% of new deals announced in recent years), nor did we account for the common practice among larger insurers of deploying more than one platform for different LOBs (for example, one platform for personal lines and another for commercial lines of business). The true number of opportunities across the US P&C insurance market is significantly higher than the specific organizations we have identified in this analysis.

Although there is great opportunity, our findings also illustrate how core modernization is in progress for many organizations. Solution providers will be building on and accommodating work that has already been done. It is essential for coretech and insurtech providers to understand at what stage potential buyers are with their modernization initiatives and focus on those opportunities where coretech solution capabilities align well with buyer needs.

Recommendations for Coretech and Insurtech Vendors

When engaging with insurers with evolving core modernization, emphasize how your individual modules seamlessly complement modules from other vendors. Most of these buyers will focus on filling capability gaps or replacing ill-fitting modules from weaker vendors. They will be less likely to consider entire platforms or all-in-one solutions.
When engaging with insurers with established core modernization paths, emphasize how your solutions deploy rapidly and provide greater flexibility or access to unique capabilities. While these insurers have already committed to a primary core platform, they will often seek new, more flexible solutions to access emerging tech or explore new market opportunities.
For insurtechs operating as ecosystem partners, focus on insurers with established modernization paths and those farther along an evolving path. As their emphasis shifts from initial deployment to enhancements, both the insurers and their core vendor partners will have incentives to expand capabilities through ecosystem partners and be more willing (and able) to engage with you.

Note 1. Methodology

This research is part of Coretech Insight’s ongoing review of press releases (PRs) from P&C core platform vendors announcing the selection of or go-lives with their core platform or at least one core module (policy, billing, or claims) by US or Canadian customers. The PRs reviewed for this research were published from 1/1/2015 through 12/31/2024 and featured on vendor websites and/or reported on by various wire services and news sites such as Business Wire, GlobeNewswire, PR Newswire, Insurance Innovation Reporter, and PropertyCasualty360.

Our objective with this review is to track buying activity and trends among insurance carriers and MGAs/MGUs. From the initial set of PRs we excluded:

PRs with no information on the timing of vendor selection
PRs on customers that are not P&C insurance carriers or MGAs/MGUs (such as life insurers, TPAs, self-insureds, and government entities)

For this 2024 update, we reviewed 325 PRs with sufficient information to determine the timing of platform selection and track customer characteristics such as size, type, and deployment objective.

For our assessment of coretech opportunities, we used publicly available industry data to identify over 1,100 P&C carrier groups and companies. We cross-referenced these with coretech press releases and other public announcements from the past two decades and reviewed the current status of customers listed on vendor websites or referenced in social media.

Sharp-eyed readers may note minor differences in prior year data with each update of our findings. During our ongoing reviews, we periodically identify additional information and PRs from prior years and incorporate these into our analysis. These additions have not impacted overall trends or conclusions.

This review did not evaluate implementation timeframes or success rates. Its focus was on the number and characteristics of selection decisions announced via press releases to gauge market activity and buying trends.

These public announcements do not reflect all new system selections during this time period. For various reasons, such as client confidentiality, a conservative approach to promotion, or even a lack of marketing resources, vendors often do not publicize new wins. Some vendors wait until after successful go-lives (which may be years after selection) before they promote new clients. We estimate these press releases cover 30 to 40% of all new P&C core platform selections from P&C insurance carriers or MGAs/MGUs during these years.

Although not a complete record of all deals, these announcements are valuable because they provide a public, verifiable record with details jointly approved by buyers and sellers. They represent a high-quality and consistent sample of activity in the P&C core platform market.

Jeff Haner is the co-founder of Coretech Insight, an independent advisory firm.

For growth-stage insurance tech providers – from innovative coretechs to rising insurtechs – who need to stand out in a crowded market and accelerate customer acquisition, Coretech Insight provides product strategy and go-to-market services that capture the attention of buyers and speed up sales.

Jeff has served in senior IT, advisory, and marketing roles with Deloitte, Oliver Wyman, NJM Insurance Group, Gartner, and BriteCore. While with Gartner, he authored the Magic Quadrant for P&C Core Platforms. Jeff’s experience “on both sides” of the insurance technology table and his ongoing research enable him to offer deep insurance industry knowledge, strategic insights, and hands-on help to take action.

Contact Jeff at jeff.haner@coretechinsight.com

Early Indicators 2024 Recap: Fewer Deals Belie Market Reality — Analysis Reveals 170+ Coretech Opportunities