When did insurance come about and since when has Santalucía existed
Insurance is part of our daily lives, although it often goes unnoticed until we really need it. The idea of protecting oneself from risk is not a modern invention, but rather a historical response to the uncertainty that accompanies human life.
The first history of insurance
The first history of insurance-like practices dates back to ancient civilizations where certain communities made collective decisions to share economic losses resulting from accidents or catastrophes. In Mesopotamia, mechanisms already existed to compensate for merchandise losses more than three thousand years ago. Similar innovations occurred in ancient China and Europe centuries later, when merchants shared the cost of lost sea voyages. These collective forms evolved to what we now understand as a modern insurance industry, which protects the assets, health, life and assets of many people and companies.
The evolution of insurance in Spain
In Spain, the history of insurance is closely linked to these European practices. From the insurances seafarers of the Middle Ages and the progressive development of companies in the 17th and 18th centuries, the sector took shape. Over time and as the economy and society became more complex, the range of risks covered and the sophistication of insurance contracts expanded.
The insurance industry in Spain was especially consolidated throughout the 20th century. At that time, companies offering diverse coverage multiplied, from goods and industries to life and health insurance, accompanying a country that was growing industrially and socially.
The origin of the Santalucía Group (1922)
Within this context, the Santalucía Group emerges as one of those actors with a particularly long and continuing history. The company we know today dates back to 1922 in La Coruña, when it was founded as a small insurance company operating on Calle Santa Lucía, from where it takes its name.
In its early years, the company's activities focused on insurances basic, with the death sector being one of its main products. Over time, it expanded its reach. In 1931 it adopted the form of a public limited company and in 1943 it took the name of Santa Lucía, S.A., Seguro Popular, consolidating a family management that has marked its identity for decades.
During the second half of the 20th century, Santalucía grew and diversified its insurance offering, expanding its geographical presence within Spain and penetrating new branches of insurance, such as home and life. Its headquarters were moved from central Madrid to the emblematic building in Plaza de España, a reflection of its expansion and consolidation.
At the turn of the millennium, Grupo Santalucía began a phase of business expansion and innovation in family care and protection services. Among other milestones, its diversification process has included the incorporation of companies specialized in medical care and claims management, as well as participation in companies dedicated to the funeral sector. In 2017, it also took significant steps towards internationalization and reinforced its position in the life and pension business with significant acquisitions.
The creation of the Santalucía Impulsa ecosystem
A year earlier, in October 2016, the Santalucía Group took an important step towards open innovation with the creation of Santalucía Impulsa, a program designed to connect talent, entrepreneurship and innovative solutions in the insurance field and beyond. From the beginning, the initiative has been aimed at accompanying startups in the early stages and to promote collaboration with Grupo Santalucía itself to generate models of shared and long-term innovation.
The following year, in 2017, Santalucía Impulsa was launched Employees, a line focused on internal talent and entrepreneurship. This aspect has allowed the Group's professionals to actively participate in the generation and development of innovative ideas that have a practical fit within the business and internal processes.
As the innovation ecosystem matured and the understanding of collaboration as a driver of transformation expanded, Santalucía Impulsa was integrated in 2021 Universities, a line aimed at connecting young talent with real challenges in the sector. This initiative promotes scholarships, university entrepreneurship projects and experiential learning programs with practical cases linked to areas such as home, family, life and Silver Economy, reinforcing the role of Santalucía Impulsa in training future professionals and agents of change.
Over time, these three lines of work (startups, employees and universities) have formed a broader and more structured open innovation ecosystem that seeks not only to accelerate external projects, but also to activate internal talent and build bridges of collaboration that promote useful solutions for both the company and society
Santalucía today: more than 100 years with you
Over more than one hundred years of history, the Santalucía Group has gone from being a small insurance company to becoming one of the leading groups in the sector in Spain, with more than seven million customers and a wide network of agents, offices and professional collaborators who bring protection and services to homes across the country.
This journey is also an example of how such a daily activity as insuring assets and lives has evolved over time to respond to growing risks, social changes and new ways of understanding family protection. The history of insurance and that of Grupo Santalucía reflect this constant adaptation, which combines the tradition of protection with the innovation necessary to remain relevant in an increasingly complex environment.
