Insurtech Qoala Raises US$ 13.5 Million Despite COVID-19 Funding Slump
by Fintech News Indonesia April 28, 2020Qoala an insurtech headquarted out of Jakarta, today announced its successful US$13.5 million Series A fundraise. The round was led by Centauri Fund – a JV between funds from South Korea’s Kookmin Bank and Telkom Indonesia.
New investors in the round included Sequoia India, Flourish Ventures, Kookmin Bank Investments, Mirae Asset Venture Investment and Mirae Asset Sekuritas, with participation from existing investors, MassMutual Ventures Southeast Asia, MDI Ventures, Surge, SeedPlus and Bank Central Asia’s Central Capital Ventura.
This fundraising round is happening amid a global slowdown of fintech deals, Qoala is the second South East Asia based insurtech startup to have raised a significant amount this month following Axinan who raised US$ 16 Million and rebranded itself to Igloo.
In its media statement, Qoala said their vision is to provide customers with a multi-channel insurance solution. The company shared that it has two business models; to drive awareness to underinsured Indonesians by working with large scale platforms, and to be a digital enabler for agents and brokers.
Qoala is hiring across teams as the business looks to build on its exponential growth, with plans to double its headcount to 300 over the next year.
Harshet Lunani
Harshet Lunani, Founder and CEO at Qoala, said:
“As a relatively new entrant in the space we are delighted to partner with leading global investors whose tremendous thought leadership as well as operational experience will allow us to maintain our innovative edge. This truly demonstrates the ecosystem’s belief in what Qoala is trying to achieve – humanizing insurance and making it accessible and affordable to all.”
Just over a year after launch, Qoala said that it has processed over 2 million policies per month, up from 7,000 policies in March 2019, and has diversified its partnership portfolio to serve five core industries: travel, fintech, consumables, logistics, and employee benefits.
Tommy Martin
“The funding will allow us to invest further into technology, people and brand to fuel our multi-channel strategy, enabling us to better serve our customers, platform partners, and insurers. In particular, during the present crisis we are seeing an increased demand for innovative and scalable services to support the industry as physical contact restrictions are impacting traditional offline sales of insurance. We have also accelerated our new COVID offerings for consumers and MSMEs across Indonesia to provide pay-outs to those affected by the pandemic, including those who have had their treatment partially or fully subsidized by the government and are hence ineligible per usual insurance plans. We will roll this out on a larger scale within the next 4 weeks ”,
added Tommy Martin, Co-founder of Qoala.
The startup has a number of partnerships with prominent brands across Indonesia, including GrabKios, JD.ID, Shopee and Tokopedia. Qoala’s customers also include other industry leading digital platforms such as Investree, PegiPegi and RedBus, as well as traditional giants such as MAP Group. Their unique go-to-market approach is supported by over 20 insurers including global players such as AXA Mandiri, Tokio Marine, Great Eastern as well as local insurers like ACA, Adira and BRI Life.
Featured image: Tommy Martin and Harshet Lunani, Founder – Qoala
