Igloo has closed a $36 million Pre-Series C fundraising round with a 50 per cent valuation increase and is poised for further expansion in Vietnam.
Global investment firm Eurazeo, through its insurtech (insurance technology) fund backed by insurer BNP Paribas Cardif, led the investment.
Openspace and La Maison, who previously participated in Igloo’s Series B and Series B rounds, also took part, reaffirming their confidence in the company’s business fundamentals.
Eurazeo invested through its insurtech fund focused on innovative technologies and business ideas disrupting the insurance industry, whilst Openspace’s investment in this round comes via its mid-stage fund, OSV , which is focused on the Series C and D rounds of transformative tech companies in Southeast Asia.
This latest round comes just ten months after Igloo’s Series B fundraising led by the BlueOrchard-managed InsuResilience Investment Fund II. In total, the company has raised $100 million.
Asia’s insurance market is brimming with untapped potential, especially in emerging economies like Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Philippines. Despite the rising adoption of insurance, however, many people remain underinsured.
This vast, underserved demographic has caught the attention of investors, with companies like Igloo standing out due to its innovative approach to the evolving landscape in these markets - addressing pain points across the insurance value chain for insurers, sales intermediaries, retailers, and consumers.
Igloo’s recent scores include two innovative offerings. In 2022, it launched Ignite by Igloo, a digital platform that enhances the productivity of sales intermediaries in Vietnam and Indonesia. Ignite by Igloo works with 22,000 sales intermediaries and agent partners across the region and aims to close 2023 with 50,000 agents as it expands into other markets. In line with Igloo’s purpose of improving financial inclusion for underserved segments, over 60 per cent of Ignite by Igloo’s intermediary partners are female.
Vietnam is the first country where Ignite launched in 2022, and it has recruited over 35,000 agents in the country, covering all 63 cities and provinces, and has issued over 70,000 policies.
Another innovation for Igloo is its Weather Index Insurance, a pioneering blockchain-based parametric insurance for farmers. The product has drawn interest from partners in Vietnam and across Southeast Asia for its potential to greatly benefit the agricultural sector.
Mr. Tri Nguyen, Country Manager Vietnam at Igloo, said that with a low insurance penetration rate of 3.3 per cent, Vietnam presents significant growth potential for the insurance industry and remains a key market for Igloo.
“Leveraging our expertise, capabilities, and technology to develop products and solutions that meet the specific needs of Vietnamese people, Igloo is well-positioned to advance our mission to make insurance accessible for all,” he added. “The additional funding will empower us to drive initiatives for further expansion in the Vietnamese market, including the introduction of new products and fostering collaborative relationships with partners across verticals.”
The new funding will go towards both horizontal and vertical M&A opportunities, having added intermediary licenses across Southeast Asia this year, in addition to its license in Indonesia.
It will also increase its workforce by 20 per cent across engineering, commercial, strategy, and insurance-focused verticals. On the product and value chain enhancement front, it looks to double down on motor, health, and climate-related products, underwriting and claims digitization, and AI and blockchain technologies.
“We are thrilled to invest in Igloo with the insurer BNP Paribas Cardif,” said Mr. Matthieu Baret, Managing Partner - Venture at Eurazeo. “With our investments in China, Indonesia, India, and Singapore, we are extending our footprint with the ambition of becoming a leading player in Asia.”
“We have been following Igloo for some time now and have been impressed by its evolution into a diversified insurance platform across channels and products,” said Mr. Albert Shyy, Managing Director of Eurazeo. “The insurance market in Southeast Asia is still very underpenetrated and we believe Igloo is in a strong position to help resolve this by making insurance more easily accessible and understandable for consumers.”
“We are always thrilled when the opportunity arises to keep investing in a company at the mid-stage that we’ve previously backed, and Igloo’s recent growth and steps towards profitability have given us further confidence in the business’s ability to capture and expand the insurance market in Southeast Asia,” said Ms. Jessica Huang Pouleur, Partner at Openspace Ventures. “Our team has been actively involved in working with Igloo to this point, and those existing relationships will enable us to seamlessly continue adding operational and commercial value as the business integrates, acquires, and strengthens capabilities.”
Igloo has facilitated over 500 million policies and aims to double its Gross Written Premiums (GWPs) from 2022. It has actively established over 75 partnerships in six countries, expanding its product offerings to cover consumer finance, e-commerce, and logistics.
Mr. Raunak Mehta, Co-Founder and CEO at Igloo, said the support from investors is testament to Igloo’s steady growth and resilience amid macro headwinds and is also a validation of its strategy. “We are the only insurtech in Southeast Asia with a robust profit and loss statement, a diverse multi-product portfolio, and an extensive distribution line,” he added.
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