Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, 17 February 2022 — Regional insurtech firm Igloo has announced that it has facilitated over 3 million policies in Vietnam in 2021, with market growth propelled by a number of strategic local partnerships across verticals and a strong demand for non-life insurance.
Since launching in Vietnam in March 2021, Igloo has expanded its network to include more local partners, including leading telecommunications firm Mobifone, fastest-growing one-hour-delivery e-commerce platform Loship, on-demand delivery platform AhaMove, and most recently, high-tech financial services company LOTTE Finance in January 2022.
The partnership with LOTTE Finance marks Igloo’s latest achievement to secure a collaboration in the local personal finance sector. It brings Loan Protection Insurance, including interest payment on late payment debts, hospitalization allowance and other critical illness and diseases coverage, to consumers on LOTTE Finance’s platform. Igloo has plans in place to secure multiple partnerships across more verticals by Q1 2022.
“With the mission to deliver affordable and accessible insurance coverage for Vietnamese consumers, Igloo is expanding its partnerships to different sectors by working with companies of all sizes, from start-ups to big corporations, in telecommunications, delivery, logistics, consumer finance, medical, and e-wallet. We continue to strengthen our business model based on two key pillars: securing more strategic partnerships and strengthening our agency channel solution,” said Ray Nguyen (Nguyen Huu Tu Tri), Country Manager, Vietnam at Igloo.
New app – Ignite by Igloo – to streamline agents’ insurance sales journey
Given Vietnam’s strong insurance demand and a digital-savvy market composed of 53 million digital consumers, Igloo has launched an AI-powered platform, Ignite by Igloo, to enhance sellers’ productivity through a smoother and more efficient sales process. Ignite offers an accessible online solution that brings together multiple insurance products on a single platform and supports agents in driving improved customer engagement and managing products to better address customer needs. Direct sales intermediaries across sectors who want to offer protection solutions to their customers will also benefit from the platform.
Users on the platform are able to access customer data within the app to avoid missing out on claims requests and status, policy renewal timings, important dates, as well as customer requests and issues. Moreover, the platform helps automate manual work such as reporting, bolstering productivity through effective data management, analysis tools and other digital support features.
“In Vietnam, human connection still plays an important role in the insurance journey. We are happy to introduce Ignite as a digital solution to help insurance agents and direct sales intermediaries manage interactions with customers at scale, and to ease the sales journey. Ignite users can sell insurance anytime, anywhere, while providing more convenience to customers, who can now access a wide assortment of products in a one-stop intuitive platform. Through Ignite, Igloo is serving as a possibility maker for people to chart a new career in insurance sales, while helping spur innovation in Vietnam’s digital insurance ecosystem through its AI technology,” said Mr. Nguyen.
Targets Strong Vietnam Growth With More Consumers Demanding Affordable, Accessible Insurance
Igloo is committed towards further strengthening its presence in Vietnam, whose prolific non-life insurance market is estimated to have reached VND 29,565 Billion (US$1.3 Billion) in June 2021, up 9.21% year-on-year according to the Insurance Association of Vietnam. As of December 2020, The Annual Report of Vietnam Insurance Market 2020 by Ministry of Finance recorded 1,066,835 insurance agents in Vietnam, including 171,397 non-life insurance agents.
Leading the Vietnam team is Ray (Tri Nguyen), Country Manager, Vietnam for Igloo who has 10 years of experience in managing high-performing teams across various industries such as e-commerce, banking and financial services. Prior to joining Igloo, he was the Country Head at Qoala, Managing Director at OYO, Manager at Expedia Group, Senior Manager at Techcombank (TCB), Corporate Banking Manager at ANZ, Business Development Manager at Bupa Australia.
To date, the Igloo team in Vietnam has expanded to 20 across business development, partnerships, marketing and operations since its launch.
“In 2022, Igloo will continue to expand full force across Southeast Asia. We are seeing more customers who are purchasing lifestyle insurance on the back of end-consumer demand for affordable, accessible insurance solutions. We are heartened by our Vietnam successes just nine months in and with plans laid out for the year, this makes for an exciting 2022,” said Raunak Mehta, Chief Commercial Officer, Igloo.
Founded in 2016, Igloo has established a regional footprint across Southeast Asia, with over 50 partners across Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam. The partnerships are in various verticals, including insurance, telecommunications, e-commerce, hospitality, health tech and financial services, with leading brand names across the markets, such as MobiFone, Loship, Ahamove (VN), DANA (ID), Bukalapak (ID), Blibli, Fabelio, RedDoorz, Sompo (ID), GCash (PH), Union Bank of the Philippines, PhilInsure (PH), Allianz, Cigna, MSIG, Foodpanda (SG), Foodpanda (TH), HonestDocs (TH), to name a few.
Igloo’s insurance solutions have already benefited over 15 million users in Southeast Asia. Igloo’s strong business potential lies in Southeast Asia’s growing digital economy, which is expected to hit US$300 billion in 2025. The increasing digital insurance penetration opens up new opportunities for digital players and insurance companies which are worth over US$10 billion in the region.
About Igloo
Igloo, previously known as “Axinan”, is the first full-stack insurtech firm to emerge from Singapore. It has offices in Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, and Vietnam, and tech centres are located in China. With a mission of making insurance accessible for all, the firm leverages big data, real-time risk assessment, and end-to-end automated claims management to create B2B2C insurance solutions for platform companies and insurance companies. Igloo’s insurance solutions enable companies to eliminate their exposure to operational risk, create new revenue streams, and optimize and enhance existing products and services. In April 2020, Igloo successfully closed its Series A+ funding round worth US$8.2 million, bringing its total funding to US$16 million from global investors.
Igloo is led by a core team that comprises top talent from the technology and insurance industries hailing from global corporations including Facebook, Grab, Flipkart, Garena, Manulife, Shopee, Yahoo! and Zalora. For more information, please visit https://iglooinsure.com/about-us.