Practically speaking, what does an 'insuretech' startup do?

They do something with technology to either sell new kinds of insurance or sell certain kinds of insurance better.

That usually involves either

1. Coming up with a better pricing / risk model that lets them underwrite certain risks for less than their competitors

2. Coming up with a better way to provide / sell insurance to people, including better forms of brokerage (such as comparison services)

3. Selling things that do (1) or (2) to other businesses. Think of how post-Monzo a bunch of companies offer "challenger banks in a box".

When I worked in insurtech, we were doing all three.

Another type of product is insurance marketplaces. There are many of these, but they all boil down to comparison services, which are essentially advertising/marketing businesses that make money via referrals. I wouldn't really call these "insuretech", but it's debatable and I think some of them do consider themselves as such.

Provide insurance in a different way, in a way that was not possible without the web, apps, AI etc, or to a group of people nobody was catering to.