Insurtech startup Papaya makes it to the final round of Arena Pitch Battle

This article is a collaboration between Betty Chum and Ainun Nadhifah

As one of the countries with the most active startups in Southeast Asia, Vietnam is often seen as a noteworthy tech ecosystem, right behind Singapore and Indonesia. A study shows that the country has around 3,000 startups that focus on many verticals, with ecommerce, fintech, and online services leading the tech scene.

This is the goal of Tech in Asia’s Startup Arena Pitch Battle, which has gone virtual for 2020: To shine a spotlight on the innovative startups in Southeast Asia. The competition has four semifinal rounds, each one focused on a particular market: Singapore, Vietnam, Indonesia, and the rest of the region. They all build up to a grand finale that will be held on October 21 and 22 at this year’s Tech in Asia Conference 2020 Virtual, where the winner will receive a US$10,000 cash prize plus perks from Freshworks, HubSpot, and Tigerhall.

For its Vietnam round, Tech in Asia invited Anandamoy Roychowdhary (principal, Sequoia Capital and Surge), Nguyen Nguyen (founder and CEO, Trusting Social), and Binh Tran (general partner, 500 Startups Vietnam) to judge the pitches given by six Vietnamese startup founders.

At the end of the event, insurtech startup Papaya was announced as the regional winner, with chat management platform Botbanhang as the runner-up.

Here’s an overview of the participating startups and their business models:

Papaya (winner)

Making claims for health insurance policies is a convoluted experience for many people. At the moment, contracts and materials are mostly offline, and customers are often confused over their own coverage.

Papaya wants to improve the health insurance experience for both customers and insurance companies. The platform provides a mobile app which gives users access to a virtual insurance card and digital check-in at hospitals and clinics. It also offers a cloud-based end-to-end claims management platform where customers can make and track their claims on the go.

Both offerings serve as the startup’s two revenue streams – the former charges clients 6% of the annual insurance premium while the latter takes 2%. According to the firm, these platforms give the startup a healthy 70% gross margin.

Papaya currently has an annual recurring revenue of US$250,000 and counts firms like FWD Insurance, Bao Minh Insurance Company, and Tiki.vn as its clients.

Botbanhang (runner-up)

Customer service is often a time-consuming and costly task, and with consumer attitudes and behaviors constantly changing, it’s difficult to ensure customer success.

As an omnichannel chat management platform, Botbanhang provides chatbot solutions that allow businesses to sell through messaging apps, automate processes, and integrate customer relationship management systems for sellers.

To date, the startup has 17,000 users and a monthly revenue of US$60,000. Some of its customers include payments firms VNPay and VinID, with its main user acquisition channels being Facebook and Google.

That said, there are many chatbots out there. What makes Botbanhang stand out from the rest? For the company’s co-founder and CEO Tien Le Anh, its competitors like Chatfuel and ManyChat are focused only on chat bots, while Botbanhang plans to build an ecosystem to increase sales for merchants.

Vifo

In Vietnam, not only do many people lack insurance policies, but transactions in the space are still done using conventional methods that involve a lot of paperwork and processes. These conditions have created a big opportunity for startups to innovate.

Meet Vifo, a SaaS platform that aims to digitize insurance companies in the country and make it easier for customers, insurers, and claims departments to conduct insurance transactions.

On the platform, users can choose various insurance products, get connected with the most suitable agent, and receive their digital contracts immediately after they purchase a policy. For insurers, the platform allows sales leaders to build and manage their own team, calculate commissions, and validate and approve policies from their customers.

The startup has two business models: It sells its software-as-a-service tool to insurance companies in exchange for 1% to 5% of the premium, and it also has a “Tier 1 Agency” model where it charges a 30% commission to insurance companies that are listed on its network. The fee is paid whenever anyone purchases insurance on Vifo’s platform.

Launched in July this year, the company has onboarded partners like VietinBank and Saigon-Hanoi Insurance, and in August, it attained a gross margin value of US$50,000. In response to one of the judges’ questions, Vifo founder Vuong Viet Linh explained that most of its revenue comes from the firm’s Tier 1 Agency business model.

Med247

Healthcare struggles are not uncommon in developing countries. Issues like long waiting times, a lack of availability at public hospitals, and difficulty in getting a hold of doctors are just some of the obstacles that patients have to face.

Healthcare startup Med247 wants to empower patients through technology. It enables users to access some health services online such as making an appointment to meet a doctor, holding video consultations, and getting medicine delivered. At the same time, it also operates physical clinics to provide basic healthcare services.

Launched in 2019, Med247 has achieved 20,000 app installs with more than 5,000 paying users. But to reach the company’s target of 4 million customers, Med247 founder Tuan Truong said the startup would be partnering with young parent communities, small businesses, and schools.

Operating a marketplace business model is also tricky, as founders often need to keep the supply and demand balanced on the platform. So besides asking about scaling users, contest judges also questioned how Med247 will increase the number of doctors to meet the demand. According to Truong, the firm plans to onboard more adjunct doctors rather than senior ones as well as partner with universities to get student doctors to work as content providers first before giving them a full-time role.

Schola

How can we encourage children to enjoy learning online? This is a question parents probably ask themselves these days as schools inch closer to home-based education.

But even before Covid-19, Schola was already trying to solve this problem. Knowing the challenges for children to get mentorship when they learn from home, the founders built a platform that offers gamified lessons, physical books that can interact with videos and games via QR codes, as well as virtual one-on-one sessions with qualified teachers.

Launched in 2019, Schola managed to attain 1,000 paying users in its first month of operations. Since then, the edtech startup has conducted more than 60,000 online classes and has generated a monthly revenue of US$50,000 and an average order value of US$400.

During the event, judges asked about Schola’s growth and the feasibility of an edtech startup offering physical books. In Vietnam, the founders explained, the habit of buying books never went away. And based on multiple tests the team conducted, they found that the aspect of having something to touch and feel was actually a strong competitive advantage for the firm, increasing the app’s stickiness.

Kamereo

In Vietnam – as well as in Southeast Asia – food and beverage (F&B) businesses often contend with fragmented supply chains. Some companies in the region have begun integrating tech into the F&B sector in an effort to solve exactly this problem.

Kamereo is one such firm. Headquartered in Ho Chi Minh city, the company claims to be the first business-to-business procurement startup in the country. Its app allows food businesses to source and purchase ingredients from the farmer groups that it’s partnered with.

At the moment, the company’s main revenue stream comes from the margins it earns from buying and selling fresh ingredients on its app. In the future, the startup plans to generate new revenue streams by running a marketplace for other suppliers to list their ingredients on, adding advertising inventories for brands, and offering lending services for merchants and suppliers.

For now, Kamereo’s main competitors remain to be supermarkets and wet markets, says founder Taku Tanaka.

Don’t miss the biggest pitch battle in SEA

Papaya will join other regional winners OctiFi (Singapore), Dropezy (Indonesia) and Curlec (the rest of Southeast Asia) at the grand finale of the Startup Arena Pitch Battle 2020, which will be held on October 21 and 22 at the Tech in Asia Conference 2020 Virtual. Each regional winner wins US$2,500 and credits from Freshworks, Hubspot, and Amazon Web Services.

Catch the thrilling finale of the Startup Arena Pitch Battle 2020 at this year’s Tech in Asia Conference. You can register here to watch this ultimate showdown live.

If you’d like to gain more insights into the startup and tech scene in Southeast Asia, join us at our biggest conference Tech in Asia Conference 2020 Virtual, happening on October 19 to 22. Don’t miss your chance to learn more about Asia’s Golden Age!