AIP News RoundUp – EP 40 – Theresa Blissing and Michael Waitze – I Do Believe We Will See Some Consolidation

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Michael Waitze worked in Global Finance for more than 20 years, employed by firms like Citigroup, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, primarily in Tokyo.  Michael lived and worked in Tokyo from February 1990 until December 2011.  Michael always maintained a particular focus on how technology could be used to make businesses more efficient and to drive P/L growth. Michael is a leader in the digital media space, building one of the biggest and fastest-growing podcast listener bases in the region.  His AsiaTechPodcast.com show has listeners in more than 170 countries and his company, Michael Waitze Media produces some of Asia’s most popular podcasts.

Theresa is the founder of the Asia InsurTech Podcast and a Thought Leader on innovation in insurance in Asia. She has worked for ten years for leading multinational insurers in Europe and Asia before turning to management consulting and venture building with the goal of transforming the insurance industry and helping shape its future in the region.

We are in the second quarter of 2021 with more exciting InsurTech news. ZA Tech has announced the opening of its Asia Fintech Center (AFC) in Singapore. The Hong Kong-based company said the AFC is dedicated to exploring financial services innovation and helping industry partners in the region to build new products that will accelerate their digital ambitions. ZA Tech has partnered in the past with ecosystems Grab and OVO to build new products and financial services in Southeast Asia. Grab also made news this month by announcing their planned IPO in the US. 

In India, PolicyBazaar is looking to go public as early as May. However, the dates have not been confirmed yet. India remains a hot market for InsurTech. Onsurity and Nova Benefits, two startups operating in the employee benefit and healthcare space for SMEs in India, have raised funding. Small, family-run businesses in India are often struggling to find affordable healthcare for their employees. Both, Onsurity and Nova Benefits, are trying to make healthcare more accessible to those markets. Listen to our episode with the co-founders of Onsurity here

In Hong Kong, OneDegree is celebrating it’s first anniversary of being a virtual general insurer. The InsurTech acquired more than 50K paid users and became a multi-line digital insurer, launching 3 protection products (pet, e-commerce, home fire). Listen to our episode with co-founder Alex Leung here

Other companies mentioned in this episode: Singlife, Qoala, Igloo, Slice, Shift Technology, Avo Insurance, Digit

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