Choosing an insurance coverage coverage is without doubt one of the most complex monetary choices an individual could make. Jakarta-based Lifepal desires to simplify the method for Indonesians with a market that lets customers evaluate insurance policies from greater than 50 suppliers, get assist from licensed brokers and file claims. The startup, which says it’s the nation’s largest direct-to-consumer insurance coverage market, introduced right now it has raised a $9 million Series A. The spherical was led by ProBatus Capital, a enterprise agency backed by Prudential Financial, with participation from Cathay Innovation and returning traders Insignia Venture Partners, ATM Capital and Hustle Fund.
Lifepal was based in 2019 by former Lazada executives Giacomo Ficari and Nicolo Robba, together with Benny Fajarai and Reza Muhammed. The new funding brings its complete raised to $12 million.
The market’s companions presently supply about 300 insurance policies for all times, well being, automotive, property and journey protection. Ficari, who additionally co-founded neobank Aspire, informed TechCrunch that Lifepal was created to make evaluating, shopping for and claiming insurance coverage so simple as buying on-line.
“The same kind of experience a customer has today on a marketplace like Lazada—the convenience, all digital, fast delivery—we saw was lacking in insurance, which is still operating with offline, face-to-face agents like 20 to 30 years ago,” he stated.
Indonesia’s insurance coverage penetration charge is barely about 3%, however the market is rising together with the nation’s gross home product because of a bigger middle-class. “We are really at a tipping point for GDP per capita and a lot of insurance carriers are focusing more on Indonesia,” stated Ficari.
Other venture-backed insurtech startups tapping into this demand embody Fuse, PasarPolis and Qoala. Both Qoala and PasarPolis give attention to “micro-policies,” or cheap protection for issues like broken gadgets. PasarPolis additionally companions with Gojek to supply well being and accident insurance coverage to drivers. Fuse, in the meantime, insurance coverage specialists a web based platform to run their companies.
Lifepal takes a distinct strategy as a result of it doesn’t promote micro-policies, and its market is for patrons to buy straight from suppliers, not by means of brokers.
Based on Lifepal’s knowledge, about 60% of its well being and life insurance coverage prospects are shopping for protection for the primary time. On the opposite hand, many automotive insurance coverage customers had insurance policies earlier than, however their protection expired and so they determined to buy on-line as a substitute of going to an agent to get a brand new one.
Ficari stated Lifepal’s goal prospects overlap with the funding apps which can be gaining traction amongst Indonesia’s rising center class (like Ajaib, Pluang and Pintu). Many of those apps present academic content material, since their prospects are normally millennials investing for the primary time, and Lifepal takes an analogous strategy. Its content material aspect, referred to as Lifepal Media, focuses on articles for people who find themselves researching insurance coverage insurance policies and associated matters like private monetary planning. The firm says its web site, together with its weblog, now has about four million month-to-month guests, making a funnel for its market.
While one in every of Lifepal’s advantages is enabling individuals to match insurance policies on their very own, many additionally depend on its buyer help line, which is staffed by licensed insurance coverage brokers. In reality, Ficari stated about 90% of its prospects use it.
“What we realize is that insurance is complicated and it’s expensive,” stated Ficari. “People want to take their time to think and they have a lot of questions, so we introduced good customer support.” He added Lifepal’s mixture of enabling self-research whereas offering help is much like the strategy taken by PolicyBazaar in India, one of many nation’s largest insurance coverage aggregators.
To hold its enterprise mannequin scalable, Lifepal makes use of a advice engine that matches potential prospects with insurance policies and buyer help representatives. It considers…
