Sequoia-backed insurtech startup Qoala nets $13.5m in series A round

With a large growing middle class in need of more security in their financial planning, there is immense potential for the insurance sector to take off in Indonesia, said Kenneth Li, the managing partner at Centauri Fund.

This is why the US$150 million investment firm, a joint venture between South Korea’s KB Financial Group and Indonesia’s Telkom Indonesia, has made its first investment today by leading a US$13.5 million series A round for Qoala, a startup that wants to make filing insurance claims as simple as ordering a pizza.

Qoala co-founders Tommy Martin (left) and Harshet Lunani / Photo credit: Qoala

Sequoia Capital India, Flourish Ventures, Mirae Asset Venture Investment, Kookmin Bank Investments, and Mirae Asset Sekuritas have joined the funding round, according to a statement. Existing investors MassMutual Ventures Southeast Asia, MDI Ventures, Surge, SeedPlus, and Bank Central Asia’s Central Capital Ventura also participated.

Qoala is a Jakarta-based startup founded in 2018 that provides a multichannel insurance solution. It works with large-scale platforms to drive awareness about insurance – a product that has low penetration in Indonesia. At the same time, it helps traditional insurance channels, which contribute 99% of insurance premiums, to go digital through its app.

See also: Microinsurance is coming for the masses in Indonesia

Tommy Martin, the co-founder of Qoala, said that the company will use the new funds to invest further into technology, its brand, and the team, which it plans to double to 300 over the next year.

Qoala has also created new offerings “to provide payouts to those affected by the pandemic, including those who have had their treatment partially or fully subsidized by the government and are hence ineligible per usual insurance plans,” Martin said. The new initiative will be available on a larger scale within the next four weeks, shared the co-founder.

Last year, the startup raised US$1.5 million in seed money from Sequoia Capital India’s Surge. It says it currently processes over 2 million policies per month, up from 7,000 in the past year, serving industries covering travel, fintech, consumables, logistics, and employee benefits.