Exploring New Frontiers: The Potential of Impact Investments in Microinsurance

This paper synthesizes high level findings from a review of the landscape of microinsurance investments and serves to identify key opportunities and challenges in the field. The research tools used for the study include online surveys, interviews of selected investors and investees, and feedback from a Microinsurance Network Roundtable held in Paris. The paper covers the following sections in detail:

• Current microinsurance market with a focus on total demand for microinsurance products, innovations in the area, potential size of the microinsurance market, and identification of regions with commendable performance in the field;
• Landscape of microinsurance investments with a focus on the major investors and investees, key characteristics of microinsurance investments, current deal options, dissection of investment approaches, measurement of impact, and drivers of these investments;
• Challenges concerning investments in traditional insurance and microinsurance and a discussion of potential opportunities with respect to investments in microinsurance;
• Suggestions to support investments in microinsurance with a focus on what different stakeholders like investors, the government, and donors can do;
• Key recommendations to catalyze investments in the field with a focus on strengthening advisory models, courting distribution businesses, addressing small ticket size investments, developing necessary infrastructure, and identifying key gaps in microinsurance.