AIP News RoundUp – EP 45 – Theresa Blissing and Michael Waitze – I Know What You Want to Say

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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.

There is no summer break for InsurTech. Hong Kong’s OneDegree raised $28 million in a new round of funding and is looking to expand further in Asia. The InsurTech startup holds a virtual general insurance for Hong Kong and also has a SaaS business that operates across Asia. Listen to our 2020 episode with co-founder Alex Leung here. A new episode will come out in a few weeks so stay tuned.

Other companies that were able to secure new funding in August include Chinese MediTrust Health with a $308M in Series C, Indian healthcare InsurTech Onsurity raising $16M in Series A and Kenko Health raising $1.7M in Pre-Series A. And last but not least Indonesian Lifepal raised US$9m in Series A. Listen to our brand new episode with co-founder Benny Fajarai where we talked about their last funding round and their social media strategy. 

In other news, Chubb acquired IOT provider StreamLabs Water from Australia-based Reliance Worldwide Corporation Limited (RWC). StreamLabs offers devices to detect leakages and perform water monitoring and water shut-off products. This raises the question if insurers should own the tech or if this might create a conflict of interest. The same applies to the announced partnership between Insurtech Carrot and government-owned Korea Expressway Corporation to “co-develop a safe drive coaching platform for the drivers”. Should insurers track customer behavior? Let us know your thoughts! 

Other companies mentioned in this episode: Bolttech, Jamm, Avo Insurance, Grab

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