Microinsurance is coming for the masses in Indonesia

If you’ve ever had to deal with a flight delay or lost baggage, you might understand the frustration of making an insurance claim. Qoala, an insurtech startup in Indonesia, aims to make experiences like that less painful.

“We once had a case where 17 kids had a delayed flight from Jakarta to Manado. They were stranded at the airport and tried to make a claim for their flight delay,” shares Harshet Lunani, Qoala’s co-founder and CEO. “As the process was automated, all they had to do was snap a picture of the documents to make the claim, and we could pay them immediately.”

Lunani adds: “We later found out that they used the money to have a meal at KFC, and that made my day because I can relate and imagine not setting aside money for a meal due to a tight flight schedule.”

The insurance industry in Southeast Asia’s developing markets has been growing rapidly in recent years.

Reinsurance company Swiss Re reports that the market in Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam, and Malaysia, as measured by gross written premiums, has grown by a combined 41.9% between 2010 and 2015 to US$59.5 billion.

In the same span of time, China’s market alone grew by 80% to US$387 billion – a much faster pace than Japan or the US.

Boston Consulting Group estimates that this trend will continue. It forecasts an 8% to 13% compound annual growth of the life insurance market in developing Southeast Asian countries through to 2020.

In Indonesia, Qoala is taking its own shot at capturing the insurance market. It partners with insurers to offer insurance products for incidents such as phone screen damages, ecommerce logistics, and flight delays. It underwrites risk for high-frequency events, employs digital fraud detection technology, and offers a simplified, photo-based claims process.

The startup’s appeal to consumers is in the ease and speed of making claims. Users don’t need to fill up paperwork as they can simply snap and upload photos of their documents using the Qoala app. The company promises to process claims immediately so that payments are released within a day.

This process is set to be supported by computer vision and machine learning, which Lunani says would help to lower costs and increase the speed of service.

Image credit: Qoala

Established in April 2018 by Lunani and Tommy Martin, Qoala went live in late September.

Partnering with insurers

Future plans and growth