As of April 2020, Qoala claims to process over 2 million policies per month, up from 7,000 policies in March 2019
Indonesia-based insurtech startup Qoala has secured US$13.5 million in its Series A funding round, according to a company statement released on April 27. The round was led by Centauri Fund, a $150 million growth-stage joint venture between funds from South Korean Kookmin Bank and Telkom Indonesia. This is Centauri Fund’s first investment since its launch in December 2019.
New investors Sequoia India, Flourish Ventures, Kookmin Bank Investments, Mirae Asset Venture Investment, and Mirae Asset Sekuritas, also participated in the round along with existing investors MassMutual Ventures Southeast Asia, MDI Ventures, Surge, SeedPlus, and Bank Central Asia’s Central Capital Ventura.
With the latest investment, Qoala’s total funding reaches $16.5 million.
Founded in 2018 by Oxford University and UCL graduates, Harshet Lunani and Tommy Martin, Qoala provides multi-channel insurance solutions for five industries including travel, fintech, consumables, logistics, and employment benefits for employers.
According to Qoala CEO Lunani, the Jakarta-headquartered startup aims to humanize insurance and make it accessible and affordable for all. It aims to achieve this through a combination of new product creation supported by scalable technology, and photo-based claims assisted by machine learning.
As of April 2020, Qoala claims to process over 2 million policies per month, up from 7,000 policies in March 2019 when the startup launched in the market. Qoala plans to double its workforce count to 300 over the next year.
Qoala offers parametric claims and personalized products to customers for flight delays, hotel quality checks, ecommerce logistics, phone screen damages, and more, while helping insurers reduce costs and risk through digital fraud detection.
“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,” said Qoala COO Martin.
Qoala has a number of partnerships with prominent brands across Indonesia, including GrabKios (Grab for Merchants), and ecommerce platforms JD.ID, Shopee, and Tokopedia. Its customers also include other digital platforms such as Investree, PegiPegi and RedBus, as well as traditional holdings companies such as MAP Group.
Qoala works with leading insurers including AXA Mandiri, Tokio Marine, and Great Eastern, as well as local insurers like ACA, Adira, and BRI Life.
“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,” Martin added.
Managing Partner of Centauri Fund Kenneth Li said, “Our thesis identified that Indonesia has a considerably low gross written premium (GWP) to GDP ratio in comparison to other emerging countries, coupled with the large growing middle class in need of more security in their financial planning which allows immense potential for the insurance sector to take off in Indonesia through innovative propositions.”
Header Image Courtesy of Qoala
