Heaptalk, Jakarta — Insurance technology (insurtech) startup Igloo has completed new pre-Series C round funding at US$36 million, equal to Rp557 billion, led by investment firm Eurazeo and insurance company BNP Paribas Cardif. In this round, Igloo’s existing investors in the Series B and Series B+ rounds, are also involved including Openspace and La Maison.
Leading this round, Managing Director of Eurazeo, Matthieu Baret, conveyed, “We have monitored Igloo’s performance and have been impressed with their evolution into a multi-assurance platform across multiple distribution channels and products. We believe Igloo would address low insurance market penetration in Southeast Asia,”
This additional capital will allow this insurtech to unlock merger and strategic acquisition at the vertical and horizontal levels after obtaining a license as a broker in Southeast Asia, including Indonesia. Igloo will augment its team by up to 20% in diverse engineering, commercial, strategy, and insurance product divisions.
The company conveyed that this fresh injection comes only ten months after the Series B+ fundraising led by InsuResilience Investment Fund ll. The company has secured US$100 million in funding from this investment completion and increased its valuation by 50%.
“These investor’s contributions will assist us in providing insurance services in the archipelago through increasing partnerships with industry players, expanding B2C and B2B offerings through the website, and broadening new business verticals. We will utilize this moment to increase insurance penetration in Indonesia.” Igloo’s Country Manager in Indonesia, Henry Mixson, said.
Igloo claimed the insurance market possessed tremendous potential in developing countries like Indonesia, Vietnam, and the Philippines. Although the insurance adoption continues to enhance, the startup observed that the industry still needs to expand the accessible service for society in the country. Moreover, the Roadmap of Indonesia’s Insurance Industry 2023 – 2027 disclosed that the country’s insurance penetration only attained 2.7% last year, compared to the previous growth of 3.5% in 2021.
Igloo’s strategic endeavors to grow insurance penetration
To elevate the insurance penetration thoroughly, Igloo continues reinforcing the digitalization system as the primary aspect for the coming five years. On the other hand, this insurtech startup also amplifies its strategic affiliations and agency business model to elevate the existing process in overall insurance value.
In 2022, this startup unveiled the digital platform to uplift the productivity of insurance sales partner Ignite by Igloo. With this platform, this company has partnered with more than 22,000 parties in Indonesia and Vietnam. Igloo aims to evolve the partners up to 50,000 by the end of this year, along with its business expansion intention in numerous international markets.
Besides, Igloo provides blockchain-based parametric insurance to help farmer groups with Weather Index Insurance. This product has attracted partners in Vietnam as the service benefits the farming sector in this market. As a result, this insurance product has protected about 20,000 hectares of coffee and rice farming land.
Igloo startup has also facilitated over 500 million insurance policies and targets to double its Gross Written Premium (GWP) this year. Hitherto, this insurance platform contained over 75 partnerships spread over six countries. Regarding product and value chain improvement, this insurance technology startup based in Singapore will focus on augmenting multiple products, spanning two-wheeled vehicle insurance, health climate-related products, digitization of underwriting and claims, and AI and blockchain technology.
