InsurTech in brief #5
Big Tech x Insurance; Amazon's insurance push in India and views from Pakistan's InsurTech ecosystem
Hi folks; thought Iโd wrap this week up with some food for thought for your weekend:
Big Tech involvement in insurance
Beginning with Google, Amazon and Apple:
Next to Tencent and Alibaba:
Whilst this was a high-level overview of Big Tech x Insurance; do let me know if youโd like to get a โdeep-diveโ into specific topics from above. (e.g. - Iโve got a post on Google x Fitbit here)
Since weโre discussing Big Tech - Amazon comes to mind!
Amazonโs insurance push in India
It is no secret that Amazon is interested in insurance in India (e.g. the $12M Series B into Acko Insurance); but, theyโve taken it a notch further -
Free Covid-19 insurance cover for its seller network; sum assured of โน50,000 (i.e. ~ $700) and underwritten by Acko Insurance. [1]
Amazon has revealed its insurance plan for AmazonPay in (first โteastedโ in 09.19 [2]; โsneak peakโ from me on 21.05 [3])
In brief, Amazon will let (initially Prime only) customers purchase insurance products (e.g. motor, bike etc) in app via AmazonPay (versus the earlier user journey of clicking an Acko advert and being redirected to the Acko website).
Smartchoice.pk (InsurTech in Pakistan)
Itโs rare to hear about the InsurTech ecosystem in Pakistan; but, in a recent Asia InsurTech podcast episode, Smartchoiceโs founder provided fascinating insights into the ecosystem [4] and Iโll share some parallels with India.
Regulatory sandbox: The SECP (Securities Exchange Commission Pakistan) launched its sandbox in 01.20 [5] which includes insurance; and, IRDAIโs InsurTech sandbox (India) has announced Cohort I and II this year!
Health insurance premium structures: In Pakistan, (annual) health insurance premiums are required to be paid upfront. For economically weaker sections these premiums would impose a significant burden. In 09.19, the IRDAI (India) allowed annual health insurance premium payment in installments (e.g. monthly, quarterly etc) [6]
Venture Capital in its nascent stages: Whilst Pakistan has some huge venture backed companies (e.g. Bykea), the VC ecosystem is slowly formalizing (mainly family offices out of the Gulf and support from expat Pakistanis). Sounds a lot like India in 2010!
It seems that Pakistan will have to overcome the same set of hurdles as India w.r.t insurance and InsurTech (with an added constraint of Takaful insurance i.e. Sharia Law compliant insurance programmes)
Thatโs all from my end for this week; next week, I hope to provide a round-up of VC funding of InsurTechs for 05.20. And, if youโd like a long form read: I wrote about Reliance Jio x Insurance.
Do let me know if there is any other topic youโd like for me to cover; looking forward to your comments, feedback and suggestions. Happy Friday!