Global investment firm Eurazeo, through its insurtech fund backed by the insurer BNP Paribas Cardif, led the investment. Openspace and La Maison, who previously participated in Igloo’s Series B and Series B+ fundraises, also joined in, reaffirming their confidence in the company’s strong business fundamentals. Eurazeo invested through its insurtech fund focused on innovative technologies and business ideas disrupting the insurance industry, whilst Openspace’s investment in this round comes via its mid-stage fund, OSV+, which is focused on the Series C and D rounds of transformative technology companies in Southeast Asia.
Matthieu Baret, Managing Partner – Venture at Eurazeo shared: “We are thrilled to invest in Igloo with the insurer BNP Paribas Cardif. With our investments in China, Indonesia, India, and Singapore, we’re extending our footprint with the ambition to become a leading player in Asia.”
“We have been following Igloo for some time now and have been impressed with their evolution into a diversified insurance platform across channels and products. The insurance market in Southeast Asia is still very underpenetrated and we believe Igloo is in a strong position to help solve this by making insurance more easily accessible and understandable for consumers,” added Albert Shyy, Managing Director, Eurazeo.
“We’re always thrilled when the opportunity arises to keep investing in a company at the mid-stage that we’ve previously backed – and Igloo’s recent growth and steps towards profitability have given us further confidence in the business’s ability to capture and expand the insurance market in Southeast Asia,” said Jessica Huang Pouleur, Partner, Openspace Ventures. “Our team has been actively involved in working with Igloo to this point, and those existing relationships will enable us to seamlessly continue adding operational and commercial value as the business integrates, acquires and strengthens capabilities.”
Igloo’s recent scores include two innovative offerings. In 2022, it launched Ignite by Igloo, a digital platform that enhances the productivity of sales intermediaries in Vietnam and Indonesia. Ignite by Igloo works with 22,000 sales intermediaries and agent partners and aims to close 2023 with 50,000 agents as it expands into other markets. In line with Igloo’s purpose of improving financial inclusion for underserved segments, over 60 per cent of Ignite by Igloo’s intermediary partners are female.
Another innovation for Igloo is its Weather Index Insurance, a pioneering blockchain-based parametric insurance for farmers. The product has drawn interest from partners in Vietnam and across Southeast Asia for its potential to greatly benefit the agricultural sector. Despite its novelty in a highly traditional sector, Weather Index Insurance has already been adopted by thousands of farmers since launching last November and covers 20,000 hectares of coffee and padi farms.
Raunak Mehta, Co-Founder and CEO at Igloo, shared, “The support from our investors is a testament to Igloo’s steady growth and resilience amidst macro headwinds and a validation of our strategy. We are the only insurtech in Southeast Asia with a robust profit and loss (P&L) statement, a diverse multi-product portfolio, and an extensive distribution line.”
Read full article: https://www.finextra.com/pressarticle/99029/insurtech-igloo-closes-36-million-funding
