Insurtech startup PasarPolis banks $54m in series B funding

PasarPolis, an Indonesian insurtech startup, announced that it has raised US$54 million in series B funding. Participating investors include LeapFrog Investments, SBI Investment, and Xiaomi, along with Indonesian VC firms Alpha JWC Ventures and Intudo Ventures.

Photo credit: PasarPolis

Gojek, which invested in PasarPolis’ series A through its VC arm Go-Ventures, also participated in the round. The series B round, the company claimed, is the largest for an insurtech firm in the region.

“PasarPolis has become the bridge for the uninsured toward insurance protection,” said founder and CEO Cleosent Randing. “We believe that by working with these globally renowned investors, we will be able to accelerate the penetration of insurance in the region by further expanding access to fast and inclusive affordable insurance plans.”

Founded in 2015, PasarPolis started out as an online insurance marketplace before becoming a tech platform that offers customized and affordable insurance products in partnership with insurers and business partners. It raised a seed round from East Ventures in April 2017 before going on to raise series A funding from that firm along with unicorns Gojek, Tokopedia, and Traveloka in August 2018.

East Ventures, however, has exited in this round. The firm’s managing partner Willson Cuaca says that it wants to avoid potential conflicts with Fuse, another insurtech startup that raised series A funding from EV Growth last year.

The company said that it issued more than 650 million policies last year to consumers purchasing insurance for the first time, including ride-hailing drivers, delivery couriers, and online SME merchants who previously had limited access to such products. It has partnered with over 30 insurance companies in Southeast Asia.

In 2019, PasarPolis also expanded to Thailand and Vietnam. More recently, Gojek rolled out insurance service GoSure earlier this year, which was developed in partnership with PasarPolis.

What is its funding history?

• Seed round (2017): East Ventures
• Series A (2018): East Ventures, Gojek, Tokopedia, Traveloka

How much traction has it gotten? Unlike traditional insurance companies, PasarPolis leverages on technology to build an end-to-end experience that can sell and process insurance policies more efficiently. For instance, PasarPolis can issue close to 2,000 policies per second at its peak, while previously, companies process one policy every two seconds, the CEO claims.

Claims are also processed directly through a user’s smartphone.

“We are good in terms of technology and digital distribution, these are the two key strengths,” Randing says. Partnering the large insurance companies helps PasarPolis build innovative products, while ecosystem partners provides the speed to integrate, as well as scale.

Aside from the three unicorns mentioned above, the company’s ecosystem partners include the likes of Indonesian e-wallet Dana and Vietnam’s Sendo.