Fuse Pockets Additional Series B+ Funds, Strengthens Ambition to Regional Market

Startups insurtech Fuse today (13/12) announced additional funding in a series B+ round with a total value of over $25 million (approximately 363 billion Rupiah). This round was led by a global investor who specializes in fundraising for fintech with an undisclosed identity, as well as support from previous investors such as East Ventures (Growth Fund), GGV Capital, eWTP, and EMTEK.

During these six months, Fuse has closed three rounds Series B funding with a total revenue of more than $50 million (approximately 725 billion Rupiah). In other words, cementing Fuse's position in the startup ranks centaur. The fresh funds raised by the company will be used to bring the Fuse platform to more countries in Southeast Asia. The company currently has more than 460 employees, with branch offices in Indonesia, Vietnam and China.

Fuse's Founder & CEO Andy Yeung said, "I'm happy that Fuse has received recognition from investors fintech global scale in the midst of rapid competition insurtech in South East Asia. We are excited to gain access and insight from portfolio companies fintech and insurtech others in this global network.

“The strong interest from global investors, together with our recent achievement in the World's Top 100 Insurtechs 2021 list published by Sønr Global and Ernst & Young, reaffirms our current ecosystem approach. The technology platform developed by Fuse makes insurance more accessible to people in Southeast Asia," Yeung said in an official statement.

He continued, according to the report he cited, this year Southeast Asia's middle class is predicted to grow to 350 million consumers with an income of $300 billion and increasingly digital literacy. According to him, Fuse is well positioned to enter this large under-penetrated insurance market through its unique technology platform, which provides a variety of distribution channels according to consumer needs.

“With the trust of investors, insurance companies, business partners and end-customer, Fuse will continue to do its best to develop the most affordable and customized insurance products. We strongly believe that the transformation of digital insurance can help more people get insurance protection, and hopefully insurance penetration rates can increase substantially in the years to come in Indonesia and Southeast Asia.”

Since operating in 2017, Fuse has taken an application approach to enable insurance sales with a B2A (Business to Agent/Broker) business model. The company has a comprehensive business model, namely B2A, B2C comparison, B2B2C (micro insurance and insurance). financial institute), which makes it possible to help businesses distribute insurance products with affordable operational costs to end-customer.

There are more than 60 thousand marketers/partners who use the Fuse Pro application to market insurance products. Fuse also collaborates with more than 40 insurance companies, ranging from general insurance companies to life insurance companies, which support Fuse to provide more than 300 insurance products for end-customer.

Since the third quarter of 2021, Fuse has been officially appointed by Tokopedia as a partner insurtech strategically to provide all general insurance products for user Tokopedia. In last September, gross premium income (Gross Written Premium/ GWP) Fuse has exceeded IDR 1 trillion, which makes Fuse a company insurtech largest in Indonesia.

Previous in interview with DailySocial.id, Yeung explained that agents/brokers play an important role in the insurance sales chain and they will not be disrupted by technology in the near future. Finally it was decided to build a Fuse Pro application to enable and support agents/brokers in digitization. At the same time, help them change the business offline menjadi online.

“In other words, we are 'shifting existing insurance' to online, rather than trying to 'create' new insurance markets such as microinsurance. That's why we focus on this agent/broker business model, especially from day one,” he said.

Agency's vital role

Actually, startup insurtech currently also has agency services to boost sales of insurance products through agents (B2B) in addition to retail channels (B2C). PasarPolis have PasarPolis Partners and Qoala with Qoala Plus Partners. However, both of them focus from retail first to business, while Fuse is the opposite. There is nothing wrong with these two business segments because the spirit is the same, namely wanting to increase the penetration of insurance products in Indonesia.

Agents are at the forefront of insurance companies in spurring business. According to data from the Indonesian Life Insurance Association (AAJI), this channel contributed to 36,1% of the total life insurance premium income until the third quarter of 2020. Then, followed by the bancassurance line 46,95% and the telemarketing line 1,88%, and others 15,06 2,1%. In total, the number of licensed insurance agents rose 635.326% to XNUMX people during the period.

AAJI Executive Director Togar Pasaribu said, for life insurance companies, agents are like fresh blood. If you don't recruit, it will endanger the company that adopts the agency strategy. “Please note that not all life insurance companies use agencies as their distribution channel. So this only applies to life insurance companies that use agents as salespeople," he said as quoted from Cash.