Singlife tripled revenue and widened losses in 2019

Digital life insurance company Singlife, previously known as Singapore Life, achieved US$171 million in total income in 2019, up from US$54 million in the year prior.

Most of its income came from gross premiums, which contributed US$104 million. Premiums ceded to reinsurers – or companies that provide financial protection to insurers – also went to US$35 million in 2019 from negative US$72 million in 2018.

Explaining this change, a Singlife spokesperson told Tech in Asia: “Singlife deployed reinsurance structures previously to optimize its capital position and offer better value to customers. These structures were no longer required in 2019 as Singlife’s capital base grew rapidly, and so the figures reflect the unwinding of these contracts.”

Founded in 2014, Singlife aims to transform the insurance space by allowing customers to view policy information through a mobile device, sign up online, get covered “in minutes” with customized coverage and policy features, and receive real-time quotations.

It received regulatory approval in 2017, becoming the first new local life insurer to be licensed in Singapore in nearly 50 years.

FUNDING AND EXPANSIONS

Its financials will be closely watched for how the digitalization of the insurance industry can benefit the bottom line.

Last year, the company secured US$90 million from Japan’s Sumitomo Life, bringing its total capital to US$153 million. At that time, Singlife CEO Walter de Oude claimed that his company was valued at US$358 million.

It now aims to broaden the range of its offerings, as de Oude believes that verticals between financial services are “blurring.” “We see insurers being able to operate in the asset management world. We see neobanks and stored value cards operating in a banking world,” he says.

He also previously said that the company looks to expand across Southeast Asia and acquire other startups to capture a larger share of the financial services market.

In order to do that, it partnered with Aboitiz Equity Ventures and Singapore’s investment firm Di-Firm to launch a joint venture last year in the Philippines called Singlife Philippines. The new entity received its license to operate in the country in early 2020, then formed its first couple of partnerships with local neobank EON and mobile wallet GCash, which has more than 20 million registered users and 63,000 partner merchants as of last year, according to its website.

Singlife Philippines looks to leverage the user bases of its two local partners to roll out its services in the country. “These are customers with increasing wealth who are looking for more digital ways to protect their finances and make their money work harder,” the spokesperson for Singlife told Tech in Asia.

Singlife now has 38 team members in the Philippines and 78 in Singapore.

Apart from expanding in the Philippines, the company acquired Visa prepaid card issuer Canvas from local payments platform Yolopay last year to step into the prepaid card space.

It also rolled out an insurance savings plan called Singlife Account in partnership with Visa. The renewable life insurance plan lets customers earn returns of 2.5% per annum on their first S$10,000 (US$7,200). The company said the new service has already seen more than S$150 million (US$108 million) in savings within the first three months of launch.

PROFIT AND LOSS

ANOTHER GROWTH YEAR?