Sources report that Chinese online property and casualty insurance company Zhong An is planning for an initial public offering (IPO) in China; the firm was founded by Alibaba's Jack Ma, Tencent's Pony Ma and Ma Mingzhe from Ping An Insurance Group of China; a primary product for the firm is e-commerce shipping insurance which accounts for approximately 50% of the business; currently the firm's major shareholders include Ant Financial with 16% and Tencent Holdings Ltd. with 12%; in 2015 it reported a valuation of $8 billion and it currently plans to raise an additional 2 billion yuan ($290 million) to help it prepare for the IPO. Source
ZhongAn starts trading tomorrow and raised $1.5bn last week, valuing the group at up to $10bn; the IPO has begun pushing insurtech into the mainstream as the company has seen growing interest across the world; the use of AI & big data have been driving forces behind the company and a main reason for investor interest; this might help to give momentum to other insurtech firms like Lemonade and Oscar. Source.