AIP News RoundUp – EP 47 – Theresa Blissing and Michael Waitze – That Was Some Pretty Big News

October ends with some major partnership news! Check out our new episode for more details and to find out which two new guests decided to drop by the AIP News Roundup where we discuss how AIP is getting even better and why blockchain is not dead! This month we saw more partnerships and more investment in InsurTech. In Malaysia, PolicyStreet.com raised RM25 MM in Series A funding and has secured in-principle approval for a combined reinsurance and general insurance license from the Labuan Financial Services Authority. After Igloo, PolicyStreet is the second InsurTech to acquire a license from Labuan and the first insurance aggregator to do so. And in Singapore, Surer has raised US$1 million in seed funding. This InsurTech started in September 2020 and has created a digital ecosystem where insurance intermediaries and insurers can leverage technology to supercharge workflows, processes, recruitment, and distribution of products. While we are seeing funding round after funding round within InsurTech markets, incumbents seem to struggle. Pacific Century Group’s InsurTech, bolttech, has extended its Series A funding round to US$210 million, but the group’s insurer FWD has experienced delays in its planned IPO in the US market. In China, Ping An Insurance, one of the pioneers of digital insurance, well known for its five ecosystem strategy, has witnessed a $90 billion plunge in its market value. In Thailand, Muang Thai Life (MTL) and ZA Tech have teamed up to offer more digital insurance products. MTL’s Fuchsia Innovation Center has a track record of both working with and investing in InsurTech and HealthTech startups, and this is accelerating the digital transformation of MTL. Another insurance incumbent that has partnered with ZA Tech, and that has a newly developed appetite for investing in startups and ecosystems, is AIA. Tech providers like ZA Tech might be the third leg of the stool enabling partnerships with ecosystems like AIA’s partnership with Vietnamese e-commerce giant Tiki. AIA has not only closed an exclusive partnership with Tiki but also led their latest Series E funding round which raised US$240 million. The post AIP News RoundUp – EP 47 – Theresa Blissing and Michael Waitze – That Was Some Pretty Big News appeared first on Asia InsurTech Podcast.