In Indonesia, the latest report reveals a prospective 4x growth trajectory for the insurtech landscape within the period of 2021 to 2026, propelling the industry towards a multi-billion-dollar gross premium size. PasarPolis, the leading insurtech company in Southeast Asia, is strategically poised to capture these market opportunities.
PasarPolis is the first Indonesia-based full-stack insurtech ecosystem, which has the unique capability to both distribute and underwrite its digital insurance products through strategic collaboration with Tap Insure – an Indonesian general insurance provider. These integrated capabilities not only enable the company to innovate with more embedded products, but also contribute to a more seamless, affordable, and delightful insurance purchase experience for customers.
Today, the company presents a comprehensive review of the insurtech sector throughout 2023, offering insights into emerging trends, challenges, and opportunities. Alongside this, we discuss the industry’s outlook for 2024, followed by strategic vision and plans for the coming year.
Key highlights from the insurtech landscape in 2023:
In the ever-evolving landscape of insurtech, the year 2023 has proven to be a pivotal chapter marked by notable advancements and transformative shifts. Technological innovation, a changing consumer mindset, and regulatory dynamics have collectively shaped the industry’s trajectory.
As we explore the standout features of the insurtech landscape during this period, we uncover the profound impact of technological advancements, the imperative to align with changing consumer expectations, and the strategic maneuvers within the regulatory landscape. These factors not only characterize the past year but also lay the foundation for a vibrant and promising future in the insurtech sector.
- Technological advancements: The year 2023 witnessed significant strides in technology adoption within the insurtech sector. Artificial intelligence, blockchain, and data analytics played pivotal roles in enhancing operational efficiency, risk assessment, and customer experience.
In 2023, PasarPolis continued to focus on its omnichannel strategy. The company unveiled its latest innovation in building a digital platform designed to provide offline merchants with a seamless means of selling embedded insurance products. This exciting development promises to revolutionize the insurance industry by empowering offline merchants to offer comprehensive insurance coverage effortlessly, utilizing an advanced digital platform.
By offering an omnichannel platform, PasarPolis aims to provide customers, both businesses and individuals, with easy access to insurance products, from policy selection to claims settlement. “Through the use of big data, machine learning, and artificial intelligence, we plan to optimize our omnichannel strategy to deliver customized insurance products. We believe it will enable us to address the customers’ needs, by facilitating and accelerating the underwriting and claim processes while innovating products that are of high relevance for customers and also customized to their needs. Our long-term vision is to become the top digital insurance company in SEA by making insurance easily accessible, affordable, efficient and frictionless.” said President Director, Peter Van Zyl.
- Changing consumer expectations: With a growing emphasis on personalized services, insurtech companies faced the challenge of meeting evolving consumer expectations. Customer-centric solutions and digital-first approaches emerged as key differentiators. Additionally, embedding insurance into everyday activities became a trend, with insurtech companies forming partnerships with relevant ecosystem players to serve customers’ day-to-day insurance needs.
- Increasing demand for affordable insurance products: There is increasing demand for affordable insurance products owing to the increasing awareness amongst the rising middle class. Full-stack insurtechs like PasarPolis are well-positioned to cater to this trend.As the leading provider of innovative micro insurance products, PasarPolis continues to scale its offerings with a robust technology system and strong partnership network. Diverging from the conventional approach of standalone insurance offerings, the company makes insurance more accessible by embedding their products in online services/portals used by everyday customers. Ecosystem partners such as Shopee, Home Credit, Gojek, and travel agents can seamlessly extend PasarPolis’ micro-insurance offerings, covering a range from travel and gadgets to logistics protection.
Insurtech outlook for 2024:
Looking ahead, the insurtech industry anticipates a dynamic and transformative year in 2024. With advancements in technology, evolving consumer preferences, and regulatory developments, the landscape is set for innovation and growth. Key areas of focus include harnessing emerging technologies, and meeting evolving customer expectations.
- The use of AI will be more pervasive: With the advancement of generative AI in the industry, the dynamics of customer-agent interactions will be shifting. AI will offer significant help in streamlining claims filing and handling; as well as expediting responses and resolution. As AI continues to advance, they might be able to more accurately predict trends and proactively offer tailored product and policy recommendations that can support both insurers and their customers.
- Hyper-personalisation for modern customers: One of the key characteristics of modern customers is their expectations to have highly customized and relevant offers to their needs. Insurtech companies must be able to offer insurance products and services that are hyper-personalized to fit the customers’ exact needs. They also want these offers to be accessible quickly and easily through digital channels, such as apps or mobile websites.
“We have anticipated the trend of hyper-personalisation in the insurtech industry quite some time ago. That is why we keep expanding our micro-insurance products. Our aim is to further democratize access to insurance and help people understand the true value of insurance protection in their daily lives,” said Peter.
PasarPolis’ vision and plan for 2024:
As PasarPolis charts its course for 2024, the company is committed to a robust strategy focused on innovation and market expansion. Leveraging cutting-edge technologies, PasarPolis aims to introduce a diverse array of insurance products catering to evolving customer needs combined with a more innovative customer experience. The strategic plan includes expanding into new markets, emphasizing partnerships for broader outreach.
Throughout 2023, PasarPolis accomplished remarkable growth, issuing approximately 2 billion policies since 2019 to date. Even more impressive, 85% of lodged claims were settled in less than 2 hours for gadget insurance, while 97% were settled in under a day for non credit insurance. Furthermore, the company continued to build a stronger network with over 50 ecosystem partners and 11,000 registered agents. As of last year, PasarPolis boasts a customer base of around 20 million with over 175 micro-insurance products developed in-house.
PasarPolis witnessed significant growth between CY21 and CY22, achieving an impressive 100% growth. However, during that time, the economics, including contribution margin (CM margin) and burn (EBITDA), were not robust. In anticipation of obtaining the underwriting license in Q4 CY22 and transitioning towards becoming a digitally native full-stack Insurtech, PasarPolis took steps to improve economics across business lines. As of the end 2023, PasarPolis recorded positive contribution margins, with strong profit pools in the underwriting business poised to propel margins in the future.
In the Distribution Business, strategic alliances have been secured with prominent players with different industry backgrounds such as logistics/shipment, financing-technology, and motor vehicle warranty service providers, and parking management to distribute PasarPolis’s products to their customer base and explore reciprocal business opportunities. These partnerships, leveraging full-stack capabilities, aim to position PasarPolis as the partner of choice for several ecosystems.
Those initiatives not only facilitate massive scale-up but also bring multiple benefits to both the company and business partners. For PasarPolis, it means a proficient workforce primed for quick integration, upselling general insurance products to an existing customer base, and tapping into the higher purchasing power of captive customers for increased sales potential. Meanwhile, the marketing initiatives will benefit from elevating lifetime value (LTV) from their existing customer base via general insurance products, access to a one-stop platform offering a strong product catalog, and higher earning potential due to an extensive product portfolio.
PasarPolis, a success story in the Southeast Asian insurtech revolution, aims to benchmark the achievements of ZhongAn Insurance, whose co-founders included Alibaba’s Jack Ma and Tencent’s Pony Ma. Looking ahead, PasarPolis is poised to bring more value to customers through regional expansion and new product innovation, solidifying its position as a leader in the insurtech industry with sustained innovation and a customer-centric approach.