SINGAPORE-headquartered insurance technology firm Axinan Pte. Ltd. announced last February 9 an official partnership with Philippines-based insurance broker Philpacific Insurance Brokers Inc. (Philinsure).
“This partnership kicks off with the digitization of Philinsure’s insurance products offering accessible and affordable insurance to Filipinos in the country to support their need for security and protection,” Axian, the operator of Igloo, said in a statement. “As the partnership evolves, Igloo and Philinsure will be providing more insurance products to better protect the families in the Philippines.”
“This pandemic brought about an urgent need for traditional industries to tap technology, and this is especially evident in the insurance sector in the Philippines,” Axinan Chief Commercial Officer Raunak Mehta was quoted in the statement as saying. “This partnership with Philinsure aims to support a very important sector in the Philippines, such as small business owners whose work have a very real and immediate impact on their communities. We want to be able to provide them with affordable and relevant protection to give them the confidence to focus on their business and their livelihood.”
According to the insurtech, with a digital insurance penetration of less than 1 percent, “the availability of insurance protection in the Philippines is largely offline which limits their reach, especially in these days of the pandemic.”
The company said it sees “a lot of potential in driving this digitally to provide highly customized and relevant solutions to the consumers in the most accessible, scalable and affordable manner. “Leveraging its technological capabilities, [Axinan] is able to deliver operational efficiencies and lower costs for its insurance partners and provide value-adding products to the customer base of its distribution partners.”
Philinsure CEO Gordon Alan P. Joseph expressed “excitement” in working with Axinan.
“We also see that working with [Axinan] will help us achieve greater efficiencies in our post-pandemic digitization program,” Joseph added.
The company cited the United Nations Development Program in saying that micro-scale, small-scale and medium-scale enterprises (MSMEs) comprise 99.5 percent of the nation’s business establishment, employing approximately 63 percent of the country’s workforce.
Axinan said its partnership with the 21-year-old Philinsure is part of its larger mission “to provide affordable insurance to the masses.”
According to the insurtech, the partnership seeks to strengthen its foothold in the Philippines market as it expands the variety of verticals it serves from on-demand customer platforms to banks, fintech and logistics firms. The company added that since it entered the Philippines with its collaboration with Southeast Asia’s hotel management and booking platform RedDoorz in 2019, it has also partnered with UnionBank of the Philippines in August last year.
The insurtech said it has also widened its insurance partner base to include Mercantile, Pioneer, PGA-Sompo Insurance Corp. and United Coconut Planters Life Assurance Corp.
Axinan said it looks to evolve its product offering by investing in the development of new products to cater and fit the ever-changing market needs.
Apart from these existing products, we aim to work with partners to launch new policies such as home, business, internet security, pet insurance and those focused on single diseases such as dengue and Covid-19, the company said.
“With these plans in mind, the team looks to hire more people in their Philippines office as it expects the number of policies sold via its platform in the Philippines to grow four times this year,” it added. “The company is also looking for strategic investors for [its] upcoming funding round,” which is expected to close by the first quarter of this year.
Founded by Wei Zhu in June 2016, Axinan said it is “a full-stack insurtech firm, employs big data, dynamic risk assessment and expedited claims management, to provide partners with widened distribution networks and allows consumers access to customized insurance solutions.”
The company said that, to date, it has sold over 100 million policies in Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.